


Wishes and Witches

by Meiza



Category: Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magika | Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir Needs a Hug, Alternate Universe - Fusion, Angst, But she's trying, Chat Noir and Ladybug are still stupid cute though, Chloé Bourgeois Redemption, Chloé is still a brat, F/M, Female Friendship, Gen, Identity Reveal, Only Kyubey from PMMM shows up, Original Character Death(s), Season/Series 01, no beta we die like men, romantic relationships not the focus, this fic is friendship based
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-04
Updated: 2021-01-30
Packaged: 2021-03-04 07:02:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 13
Words: 117,323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24539686
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Meiza/pseuds/Meiza
Summary: Marinette knew magic existed - the tiny fairy/god creature who transformed her into a superhero was proof enough of that - but she never really thought of the magic that existed in the rest of the world, magic that had nothing to do with the Miraculous.At least not until it tried to kill her after she literally walked right into it.As it turns out, Magical Girls are just as real as Super Heroes, girls who willing joined a secret war against Witches in exchange for a single wish to gain their deepest hearts desire.But Marientte comes to learn there are far more insidious dangers the Magical Girls must face, the true weight of a wish, and that there are far greater prices to pay than ones life.And perhaps, the girl she once thought she hated was more heroic than she ever thought she could be.A Miraculous Ladybug AU, set entirely in season 1. I tried to write this in a way so that anyone who's never seen PMMM can still enjoy and follow along with the story. However, major spoilers for elements of PMMM begin as of chapter 9, so be warned.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir & Chloé Bourgeois, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Chloé Bourgeois & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Comments: 250
Kudos: 153





	1. Divergence

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story has been percolating in my brain for a year or two now, long before Season 2 ever dropped, and it's only recently I've finally bothered to write it out. I've actually only ever watched season 1 of ML, but I have borrowed elements of later seasons I thought would help the story.
> 
> The chapter count is tentative, but it's by best estimate based on my current outline of the story.
> 
> I hope everyone enjoys!

Searching for and choosing the next Miraculous holders was not a task to be taken lightly, especially when it came to the Ladybug earrings and Black Cat ring for the sheer power they represented, nor the great danger they presented if abused. Even so, after finding an excellent Ladybug candidate first thing that morning Fu was in a rather pleasant mood. Not that he could get complacent, Fu still had to find a potential new Black Cat before he could start patting himself on the back.

On that thought, Fu slowed down as he approached a crosswalk. He had toyed with the idea of swinging by the nearby school to the left, but he ending up taking too much time to get here and classes had already started, meaning it was already too late to really find anyone there. He’d have to wait until the students were let out for lunch if he hoped to test for worthy candidates.

With the butterfly miraculous in evil hands, he didn’t have the time to waste in fruitless searches. At this time of day, he’d be better off trying a different area. He can try coming back in a few hours if he didn’t find anyone.

With a shrug, Fu turned to the right.

~*~*~*~*~*~

_“So you can grant ANY wish? I can ask for anything at all and you could give it to me?”_

_“Absolutely. After all, if you only get to have one wish it’s only fair you have the chance to use it for your deepest, greatest desire. I am asking you to take on a heavy duty in exchange after all."_

_“Wow, that sounds…way too good to be true, actually. What aren’t you telling me?”_

_“What I say is true, and I’m telling you everything relevant. If you have a specific question, you need to ask it.”_

_“Ughh. Fine. Okay, so are there any limits on what you can grant? Like, in Aladdin the Genie couldn’t bring back dead people, make people fall in love, or kill anyone. Do you have any rules like that?”_

_“A very good question. I don’t normally go into that because I don’t want girls to unnecessarily restrict their wishes, but there are rules I have to follow. Mainly, I can’t bring back someone who has already died and I can’t overrule free will. That being said, a well worded wish can work around such restrictions, and even if a girl doesn’t word it just right I will still do my best to fulfill the wish to the fullest extent possible.”_

_“Like how?”_

_“I can’t bring back the dead directly, but I can grant a wish to allow the girl a chance to save the person themselves. I can’t make a person fall in love, but I can draw their attention to the girl so she has the chance she might not otherwise have to win their affections. These are just examples, there are many other ways this could work. However, I’m also not allowed to suggest a wish so the girl would have to figure that out on her own.”_

_“In other words, to make sure I get what I really want I have to be careful about how I ask for it.”_

_“Something like that. As I said, I will grant any wish to the fullest extent possible, but I’m not omniscient; I can only grant the wish you make. I can give you anything you want, but I can’t give you what you don’t ask for.”_

_~*~*~*~*~*~_

Marinette appreciated Tikkis faith in her, she really did, but considering they had just met and Tikki surely had no idea what better options where out there yet, Marinette couldn’t help but take it with a pinch (or pile) of salt. Still, Paris needed help, and even if she wasn’t the best choice she remained the only choice available right now. Marinette simply could not sit on the sidelines when she had the power to help her home city.

But a chance to practice a bit before she had to throw herself into a supervillain fight would have been nice. Work out the kinks and figure out her powers and limits rather than find herself falling out of the sky screaming and flailing.

Like she was doing right now.

“EEEEYAAAAAAAAAAH!”

Marinette was sure she was going to end her short-lived super heroine career as a red-and-black spot on the pavement, until something black and silver flashed in the corner of her eye and the last of her breath was knocked out of her by something wrapped around her stomach. The next few moments were a confusing spinning mess of blue sky and grey concrete and black something until she came to a rolling stop on a nearby roof.

Marinette took a second to breathe and recover before her brain caught up to process a few important details:

  1. She was alive and unhurt,
  2. The black thing was a person, and
  3. The person was still on top of her, one arm around her waist and the other wrapped protectively around her head. 



“Are you alright?” A low, soft voice asked right next to her ear. The question was enough to snap Marinette out of her shock.

“Get off!” She yelled, pushing the other person away.

The person - a boy, she could see now - leapt away like she was on fire, holding his hands up placatingly.

“Sorry! I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you, I just heard you and, well, I didn’t know what else to do. I couldn’t let you fall, but…”

Marinette sat up as the boy rambled and trailed off. Now that she wasn’t in confused panic mode she could actually absorb what she was looking at. The boy was wearing an all black, leather-like suit that clung to his form, with a bell at the collar. Poking out of his black and teal colored hair were a pair of black cat ears, and half his face was covered by a black mask that served to make his blue eyes (with vertical slit iris’s, what the heck) pop out like sapphires.

Something clicked in Marinettes head.

“Are you the partner my kwami told me about?” She asked eagerly as she stood. The boy perked up with a grin.

“I don’t imagine there are too many people running around with masks and kwamis, so I’m going to assume yes.”

The boy moved to stand as well, but paused as Marinette offered her hand. He took it gingerly and allowed her to pull him to his feet. Standing he was easily head and shoulders taller than she was, but his smile was so kind and expression so gentle Marinette couldn’t feel the least bit nervous.

“Well, thanks for catching me. And, sorry for yelling and pushing you away,” Marinette said, a sheepish note at the end. The boy rapidly shook his head.

“No no, don’t worry about it. I was trying to help, but I’m still a guy you don’t know grabbing you like an octopus. My name’s…” at this he frowned in contemplation. “Actually I’m still working on a super hero name. I’m thinking Black Cat to keep it classic, but I’m not sure I like how simple it is. I’ve never been very good with words.”

A crashing, explosive sound thundered in the distance, and both teens whipped their heads around in its direction.

“We’ll have to finish introductions some other time when we don’t have a super villain running around,” Marinette said, taking out her yo-yo again as Black Cat(?) took out a silver baton.

“I’m right behind you."

~*~*~*~*~*~

_“Okay, so, I know I want to become a Magical Girl because OF COURSE, but I’ve already got just about everything I want, and anything I don’t have I can already think of ways to get on my own. The wish is kind of just a means to an end for me, but I don’t want to waste the wish either. Honestly you’re lucky that you had it super easy.”_

_“Right. Lucky is_ exactly _the work I would have used for myself. Okay, how about this; if you already have everything you want, then why not use it to help others? Wish to end world hunger or something?”_

_“Why? What would that do for me? I want to get what’s mine.”_

_“Right, silly of me to suggest it. Look, I can’t tell you what you should wish for. No one can tell you that. But before anything, I think you need to commit to either being completely selfish, or completely selfless.”_

_“Um, it’s my wish, so I’d be using it for myself anyway. Why is that even a question?”_

_“Because you’ll be putting your life on the line with every Witch you fight. You could make a wish today and die in a Labyrinth tomorrow. Can you think of_ ANY _wish you could make for yourself right now that would be worth that?”_

_“….”_

_“I didn’t think so. Look, some girls do make purely selfish wishes and are happy with them, but you have to decide if it’s something worth possibly dying over. On the other hand, many girls instead choose to make a wish to help other people, friends and family, people they love. That means if they die, the wish lives on and the people they leave behind can still live better lives. They find comfort and fulfillment in that.”_

_“I’m sensing there’s a ‘but’ coming.”_

_“_ But _they have to make the wish purely selfless, because no one is ever going to know what they did. They’ll never be thanked, they’ll never be acknowledged, the person they made the wish for might even leave someday, and they’ll have to be okay with that.”_

_“…Yeah, I already know I would not be okay with that.”_

_“At least you’re self aware enough to realize that right now. Some girls try to make a selfless wish, and end up regretting it because they used up their one wish for someone else’s happiness rather than their own. There’s nothing wrong with a selfish wish, I think. Mine was purely selfish, and I don’t regret it.”_

_“Like you could have ever wished for ANYTHING else. Ugh, this wasn’t as much help as I’d hoped.”_

_“I don’t know what you were expecting me to tell you, other that don’t make a wish you’ll regret later.”_

~*~*~*~*~*~

The last couple of days had been quite the learning experience for Black Cat - that super heroes and villains were real, that he was capable of far more than he realized, and the importance of learning to communicate with words since a battle plan cannot be shared via music.

Most recently, Black Cat learned that he didn’t know true terror until Stoneheart _threw his hostage from the Eiffel Tower._

Before his mind could even catch up to what was happening, his body had already launched himself forward. The two collided mid-air and Black Cat flipped forward once more to land gracefully in a crouch, the infamous Chloé Bourgeois in a bridal carry in his arms looking justifiably terrified.

“That didn’t count!” Chloé yelled in his face, much to Black Cats bafflement.

“What?”

Chloé didn’t answer of course, already leaping out of his arms and running to her relieved father. Black Cat had to put it out of his mind to focus on the current crisis, and to give Ladybug the support and encouragement she needed to become the amazing hero he already knew she could be.

Ladybug was spectacular of course, and as she assured the people of Paris that they had protectors now Black Cat found himself grateful to have a partner with the charisma and confidence to touch hearts so honestly.

And hey, Ladybug introduced him to all of Paris as Black Cat, so that name was going to stick now. He wasn’t sure how he felt about that.

Black Cat made sure to exchange a few words with Ivan and Mylene to make sure they were alright. They appeared no worse for wear from the experience, and if anything seemed almost deliriously happy now that Ivan was finally able to confess his feelings (unorthodox as it was). Ladybug quietly gushed, and Black Cat had to admit the pair were cuter than a box of kittens when they were together.

But when he suggested doing the same for Chloé, Ladybug seemed oddly disinterested in doing so. To be fair Chloé seemed okay, her father keeping a comforting arm wrapped around her shoulders as reporters and their cameraman came running. And, really? Andre Bourgeois was going to throw his daughter in front of the news NOW?? Not give her a bit more time to recover before putting her under a spotlight?

He mentioned it to Ladybug that it seemed a bit insensitive, but she dismissed it saying “Chloé always has to be the center of attention. Trust me, she’s enjoying every minute of it.”

Ladybugs utter unconcern for Chloé, a sharp contrast to the care she showed for Mylene and Ivan, rubbed Black Cat the wrong way at the time.

When he watched the news later that day he did have to admit that Chloé appeared to handle herself well and was answering questions with confidence, so maybe Ladybug knew what she was talking about. Even so, he couldn’t help but feel like he was watching a performance, even though he _knew_ Chloé didn’t have a chance to practice her answers beforehand. It was actually kind of painful to watch.

That feeling didn’t leave him even hours later as he tried to pluck his guitar and process what’s been happening. Plagg ended up smacking him in the face and telling him that if he wasn’t going to shut off his brain and go to sleep then he should just go and see Chloé for himself. “Maybe then you’ll see she’s fine and you can let us BOTH go to sleep!”

Plagg may not have been abundant in sympathy, but he was proving to be good at giving a kick in the pants when it was needed.

Which is how Black Cat found himself standing on Chloé Bourgeois patio deck a little after 10pm, gently rapping on the glass door and quietly muttering “This is so stupid, why am I doing this, she’s going to think I’m a creeper, this is the dumbest thing I’ve ever done, Plagg is going to be a terrible influence on me.”

He stopped when he heard movement inside, followed shortly by the girl herself tying a robe around her. She stopped dead in her tracks when she saw who was standing on her patio, mouth agape in shock. Black Cat sheepishly waved and briefly wondered if it was too late to just throw himself off the building.

Chloé was quick to recover, marching over and opening the glass door. She stepped out and defiantly met Black Cats eyes, arms crossed.

“This ought to be good,” she said by way of hello.

“I’m sorry to bother you so late,” Black Cat said, putting his hands behind him. “I wanted to come by and check on how you were doing, after everything you had to go through today.”

“Hah!” Chloé barked, tossing her hair over her shoulder with a well practice motion and lifting her chin with aself-assured grin. “You clearly don’t know anything about me. It’d take much more than one comic-book wannabe villain to scare me.”

Black Cat gave her a long steady look.

“Chloé. There are no cameras, no paparazzi, no witnesses, no one listening in and no one who knows I’m here. There’s no one you need to put a show on for.”

Chloé narrowed her eyes. “Your point?”

“You could have died today. It’s okay to not be okay.”

The teen girls eyes widened and her head reeled back. She stared wide eyed at him for a few seconds, as if he had just suggested something crazy and impossible, before she let her gaze drop to the floor. Black Cat waited her out, letting her get her thoughts in order, and after a small eternity she finally spoke again.

“It’s not okay for me,” she admitted quietly, crossing her arms. “I can’t…being weak isn't an option, because someone is _always_ watching, waiting for that slip up. I have to be strong, I have to be someone who can command attention and respect all the time and be _exceptional_. If I’m not I’m…I’m just…”

Chloé trailed off, jaw clenched, fingers digging into her sleeves, shoulders beginning to hunch forward, eyes burning a hole in the floor.

Black Cat felt his heart going out to the girl before him. His sister had shared a few stories about Chloés cruel and callous nature, and they both dismissed it as a result of being spoiled and pampered. While that was likely still true in part, he felt he discovered a deeper layer as to why she was the way she was. Being denied the right to be vulnerable? Having pressures and expectations foisted on her she never asked for?

He had the advantage of being able to take off his mask and go back to being a normal kid. When did Chloé get to escape? When did she get to take off the mask?

Black Cat stepped just close enough to lightly touch Chloés shoulder. Her head snapped up, but she didn’t move away.

“Not here you don’t,” he said quietly. “Not now you don’t.”

Chloés stared back at him for a long moment, eyes wavering as if between hope and disbelief.

“It was…”

She stopped. She started again.

“I really thought I was going to die and…I didn’t mean for…”

The tears began.

Black Cat gently pulled her in and let Chloé cry softly into his shoulder, mutterings of _she didn’t mean to_ and _she didn’t know_ and _she was so scared_. Slowly her arms came up to return the hung, and then she was gripping him like he was a lifeline. He ran a comforting hand over her back like he used to do for his sister when she was feeling low and sad.

They stood there for what felt like an eternity, until Chloé finally ran out of tears. She took a deep breathe and a step back, wiping her face with the back of her hand.

“You tell anyone about this, I WILL hunt you down,” Chloé threatened, though the bite was completely lost. Black Cat smiled at her.

“I will take this to my grave.” He promised with a hand to his heart. He sobered and added “I’m sorry, but I don’t think I can stay any longer before I’m missed.”

Chloé’s expression fell slightly, but she nodded in understanding. Black Cat turned and started to lift a foot to the railing when he felt a touch on his elbow. The touch was featherlight, but it rooted him to the spot. He turned back to see Chloé determinedly looking anywhere but at him, a blush creeping across her face.

“I get the whole super-hero thing means you probably can’t have a whole lot of civilian friends,” she said to the left wall. “But in case you ever feel like getting a decent meal or need a place to nap or someone to complain about crap with, knock whenever. Alright?”

Black Cat blinked, before giving her the widest smile yet.

“I can’t promise anything, but I just might take you up on that if I can.”

Chloé met his eyes for a brief moment before she was looking away again, still blushing but now with a smile starting to break through.

Black Cat leapt from the balcony, the smile stubbornly refusing to leave. He really shouldn’t indulge, but behind the sharp jagged edges Chloé covered herself in he realized there was a girl worth getting to know.

He was rather looking forward to it.

~*~*~*~*~*~

_“This has been a rather intense couple of days, hasn’t it?”_

_“Congratulations, you just won Understatement Of The Year Award. Here, have a ribbon.”_

_“…”_

_“What?”_

_“Aren’t you going to tie it on for me?”_

_“…Fine.”_

_“Have you decided on a wish yet?”_

_“GOD you’re pushy!”_

_“My apologies. I just thought after yesterday, you’d want to become a Magical Girl as quick as possible. I can’t imagine how horrible it must have been, being completely helpless and unable to save yourself. Completely and utterly dependent on outside rescue that may or may not arrive in time.”_

_“…”_

_“As a Magical Girl, you’d have the power to save yourself, protect yourself whenever Akumas appear again. You’d have to use good sense so as not to expose yourself, but at least you could rest assured you had that ace up your sleeve should you find yourself trapped or being held hostage again. And considering your position, it’s a question of when, not if. Isn’t it better to take measures to protect yourself sooner than later?”_

_“You’re not wrong, but I’m still working on my wish. I think I’d rather wait a little longer and see how all this plays out. Having a wish ready to go may be the ace I need._

~*~*~*~*~*~

Not to discount what Alya did for her as a fantastic supportive new friend, or how knowing she had someone like Black Cat backing her up helped, but once Marinette accepted the mantle of Ladybug it was amazing was a boost to her confidence it was. After facing Stoneheart and showing Hawk Moth she would not to be cowed by him, not to mention swearing to all of Paris to be its protector, a school bully seemed so small and petty in comparison. Standing up to Chloé and holding her ground, something that once seemed impossible now seemed so easy.

Getting to see Chloé’s expression of barely restrained fury was quite possibly the funniest thing Marinette had seen in her life.

As a cherry on top Adrien Agreste hadn’t come back to class either, so she didn’t have to worry about Chloés posse expanding, at least for now. She hadn’t heard much from the boy since he denied planting the gum on her seat (yeah right), but being an old friend of Chloé’s did not indicate good things for his character anyway.

However it did not escape her notice the way Chloé was constantly glancing to the empty seat and the door, as if she was expecting him to walk in any minute. Nor did she miss how the longer the day went, the more Chloé would fidget; drumming her nails, tapping her foot, playing with her hair. That last one caused Marinettes eyebrows to raise. If there was one thing anyone knew about the blonde, it was the pride she took in her perfectly styled hair. If she was messing with it absently, something must have been seriously bothering her.

Marinette couldn’t recall ever having seen her seem so agitated, and for as much as she despised the bully the odd behavior still raised some red flags.

Chloé appeared to have reached a breaking point about three hours in and asked for leave to go to the bathroom. She barely waited long enough for Ms. Bustier to grant permission before she was out the door.

Alya leaned in and quietly asked “Is Chloé usually that twitchy, or is she being weird?”

“Definitely weird.” Marinette whispered back.

“I don't trust this. I say someone needs to keep an eye out and see what she’s up to.”

After a discreet game of rock-paper-scissors, Marinette was the next to ask for a bathroom pass. Marinette was out the door and at the railing just in time to see Chloé disappear into the gym. Marinette was quick down the stairs to follow. If she had to guess, Chloés ultimate destination was the girls locker room if her goal was privacy.

Her suspicion was confirmed when she cracked the door open and heard Chloé’s voice on the other side of the row of lockers. Marinette couldn’t make out words yet, but the tone was unmistakably sharp and acidic. Marinette swung the door open the minimum she could and crept in even as she listened in.

“No, YOU don’t get it! This is the only thing he’s ever asked for, and you can’t even give him THIS much!” Chloé snapped. Marinette couldn’t hear any response, so Chloé must be talking on her cell phone. Marinette took a position against the locker row that, from the sounds of it, Chloé was on the other side of.

“Then hire more body guards!” Chloé continued angrily. “Have a driver take him to school and pick him up! Get armored transport if you have to! You’re richer than God, you can’t tell me you can’t make it work! Adrien doesn’t need to be locked in a castle, he NEEDS to be in a school with _people!!_ ”

Marinette frowned. Apparently there was more going on with Adriens absence than she had assumed. The implications of what she was hearing were…unsettling.

“And maybe Godzilla will show up next and step on your house!” Chloé snapped, exasperated. “You can’t keep him locked up because of what _might_ happen! He’s already started making friends here, you can’t-”

Short pause, then Chloés released an aggravated sigh.

“Fine, then I’ll bring kids over instead. He can have more friends AND still be in that super-ultra safe house, so everyone wins.”

Pause. When she spoke again, her voice was low and shaky.

“What?”

Marinette edged closer to the edge of the lockers, straining to catch every word.

“No. No. You can’t DO THAT, I’m the only friend he has, you can’t keep me away too, you CAN’T DO THAT TO HIM!”

Marinette felt a sick weight settle in her stomach and fervently hoped it wasn’t what it sounded like.

“HE’S NOT A PRISONER YOU CAN KEEP LOCKED UP! I’LL CALL DADDY, I’LL CALL THE POLICE, I’LL CALL WHOEVER I HAVE TO! I WON’T LET YOU DO THIS!”

Heavy breathing. A long, pregnant pause. Marinette was flat against the locker, holding her breath and for once praying Chloés ‘Daddy Card’ would work.

A low sound that crescendo’d into a heart wrenching cry was the only answer, and a phone thrown at the window, leaving a huge spiderweb crack at the point of impact and breaking the phone to pieces. Marinette nearly jumped out of her skin and slapped a hand over her mouth to stifle a yelp.

There was a few seconds where the only sound was Chloés heavy breathing. Suddenly Chloé was stalking right past her, and Marinette was utterly frozen as if being still would save her from being seen.

It seemed to have worked, as Chloé was either too distracted or too focused on her new objective, because she threw the locker room door open with so much force it hit the wall with a loud BANG. Marinette would honestly not be surprised if she found a dent in the wall later.

Marinette stayed where she was, hands still over her mouth, as her eyes followed Chloé run past the windows from outside and out the school gates. Only when she was gone did Marinette dare to move again.

How strange. Chloé has seemed so petty and small just that morning, but only now after seeing true, genuine fury Chloé suddenly seemed so much more frightening than Stoneheart ever was.

When Marinette got back to the classroom, Alya’s eager expression morphed to concern upon seeing her friend. Marinette waved off her questioning look and quietly promised to explain later. Chloé never returned to the classroom that day, and Marinette wondered if the blonde was off staging a rescue for her friend.

Perhaps Ladybug should consider a rescue mission tonight as well.

~*~*~*~*~*~

_“You promise this will work? You’ll be able to save him, for real?”_

_“Of course. You have to power to change his fate for the better. All you have to do is make a contract with me, and become a Magical Girl.”_

_“Alright. Alright. Okay then. Just give me a second.”_

_“When you’re ready.”_

_“I wish…”_

~*~*~*~*~*~

Searching for and choosing the next Miraculous holders was not a task to be taken lightly, especially when it came to the ladybug earrings and black cat ring for the sheer power and potential they represented. Even so, after finding an excellent Ladybug candidate first thing that morning Fu was in a rather pleasant mood. Not that he could get complacent, Fu still had to find a potential new black cat before he could start patting himself on the back.

On that thought, Fu slowed down as he approached a crosswalk. He had toyed with the idea of swinging by the nearby school to the left, but he ending up taking too much time to get here and classes had already started, meaning it was already too late to really find anyone there. He’d have to wait until the students were let out for lunch if he hoped to test for worthy candidates.

Then again, it wouldn’t hurt to swing by anyway. Sure, at this time the only young people he’d likely find were late comers, but maybe he’d get lucky and one would be worthy.

With a shrug, Fu tuned to the left.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 10/11/20 Minor edits and corrections


	2. Felicity

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me: I've got the first five chapters written out already, I should space them out, maybe a week in between each to give myself plenty of time to stay ahead with future chapters. 
> 
> Also me: posts second chapter one day later.
> 
> Self-control? Who's that?

The best part about todays Akuma was Nino getting excellent, one of a kind footage to make their short film entry incredibly awesome and something everyone could be proud of.

The worst part about todays Akuma was Nino getting excellent, one of a kind footage that required a major last minute rewrite and multiple reshoots to explain A) what Chat Noir and Ladybug were doing in their monster movie/spy flick, and B) why “Agent Smith” was having her Big Kiss at the end with someone who never appeared before that point.

Thank God for Rose - the Beauty and the Beast angle was a brilliant suggestion and solved half their writing problems. Marinette did not envy Alya having to rework the entire plot though.

Hours later the class was politely but firmly kicked out of the school with enough footage for Max, Alya and Nino to edit a (hopefully) cohesive story. They were quietly squabbling over whose house would work best while the rest of the group dispersed, either being picked up (like Adrian and Chloé) or walking home (like Marinette).

Once Marinette had walked far enough to be out of sight, Tikki popped her head out of the purse to say “That was quite the long day. How are you feeling?”

“If anyone ever asks me to help on a major project like that again, please slap me in the face.” Marinette begged. Tikki giggled.

“To be fair, it’s hard to anticipate the main lead being Akumitized in the middle of shooting,” the kwami pointed out, settling back in the purse. Marinette rolled her eyes.

“Horrificator was the _easy_ part. And honestly, we probably should have expected something like this since _Chloé_ was there. What was she doing there anyway? Who invited her?”

“It was a class project Marinette,” Tikki reminded her gently. “She had to be there, but no one would give her anything to do.”

Marinette scoffed. “Because she and Sabrina were SUPPOSED to be in charge of wardrobe, and they didn’t even do that! Ivan had to make his own mask for goodness sake! No way I was going to trust her to do anything else right.”

Tikki didn’t respond, but now that Marinettes thoughts had turned to the blonde bully it was like a mental dam had broke. Everything about her was Just. So. G _rating_.

The way she treated everyone, acting so superior like she was owed EVERYTHING while she contributed NOTHING. How mean and petty she was, how she’d throw herself on Adrian one minute and casually steal his drink the next even though he deserved _to be treated so much better -_

“Marinette? Where are we going?”

\- and she just wouldn’t STOP! Just remembering her screechy voice and stupid smug face and just EVERYTHING about her made Marinette so mad she was seeing red -

“Marinette! Stop it!”

\- and she just wanted Chloé to suffer back was she made others suffer, have the pain inflicted back on her ten fold, a hundred hold, A THOUSAND until she was crushed and smashed her bones snapped blood spattered faced ripped to ribbons Marinette would feel it under her _own nails -_

 **“ _MARINETTE_!”** ****

Marinette gasped as she snapped back to herself, stopped dead in her tracks, Tikki floating in front of her face looking terrified. Marinettes own eyes widen in horror as she realized what she had just been thinking, _what kind of person was she??_

In fact, now that she took a moment to look around, this road wasn’t on her way home at all. Instead she was down a narrow, unfamiliar side street, and even when she turned back the way she came she couldn’t even see the familiar road behind her. Wherever she was, it was a ways off from where she was supposed to be.

“What? What am I…?”

Tikki moved into Marinettes line of sight again, the fear mostly gone and replaced by firm command.  
  
“Ask later, we’re in terrible danger and have to get out of here NOW before it’s too late!”

But even as Tikki finished speaking, the world around them was shimmering and waving, like ripples in a pool. Within seconds the world Marinette new had faded away and she and Tikki were…elsewhere.

Marinette stood upon a wide cobblestone path, but it the stones were in shades of red and would sway ever so slightly under her feet, as if it were actually a rope bridge. The walls were made up of giant playing cards, alternating front and back, all from the suite of hearts. and curved upward to form the ceiling, creating a tunnel. The cards were spaced widely apart though, and in between Marinette could see nothing but an empty black void. The cards were loosely woven together with red thread, which also criss crossed across the tunnel and even to the path itself. It was as if the entire world was being held together by the delicate red thread.

As Marinette watched, a handful of what looked like giant spiders about the size of cats scurried across the ceiling from one end of the tunnel to the other, making a chittering sound as they traveled across the threads.

Marinettes heart was thumping, yet she felt a sense of calm, intense focus descend upon her. This wasn’t the time to panic. This was the time to act.

“Looks like we got caught up in another Akuma,” Marinette surmised, continuing to look around herself. “We should try contacting Chat, if we can’t get a signal out we’ll have to try and escape ourselves. Hopefully there’s a weak point we can exploit. Tikki, s-”

“WAIT!”

Marinette snapped her mouth shut, blinking at her kwami in shock.

“I’m sorry Marinette,” Tikki said, more softly, “but there are some things you need to know first. Most importantly, this is NOT the work of an Akuma.”

Marinette blinked.

“How can you be so sure?” she asked. “I know Hawkmoth has never sent two Akumas in one day before, but what else could cause all this?”

Tikki took a deep breath and let it out slowly, as if she was bracing herself for what was coming next.

“Because I’ve seen something like this before, a long time ago. We’re in a Labyrinth, a pocket reality separate from the world we know. It was created by a creature called a Witch as a home for herself and a trap for humans. The only way to escape on our own is to defeat the Witch at the center of the Labyrinth. I don’t know how strong she will be, you may have faced Akumas more powerful than her. Nevertheless, she will be dangerous because she will be trying to kill you. Your only chance of survival is to kill her first.”

Marinette felt the bottom of her stomach drop out. Tikki let what she said sink in for a moment longer before she continued.

“If you don’t think you can do that, if you think you will hesitate, then the only other choice is to find a place to hide and wait for rescue. However there’s no way to know how long that would take. It could be hours or even days before anyone comes, and the longer it takes the more likely the Witch will find us first and force a fight anyway.”

Marinettes head was spinning. So many questions she wanted to ask about what was happening, _why_ it was happening, why it happened to them. In the mess of thoughts one question came out first.

“Who do you think is going to come? How is it possible for _anyone_ to come rescue us?”

“I’m afraid I can’t tell you much,” Tikki admitted, “but there are those dedicated to tracking and hunting Witches, and last I knew they were usually on constant patrol. I have no doubt one of them will find this Labyrinth, I just can’t be sure how long it’ll take and that’s not a gamble I think we should take. Anything else you want to ask will have to wait until we’re out of here.”

As if on cue the chittering sound returned, and dozens of the spider creatures appeared from behind the card walls and ceiling. This time they were moving down the walls toward Marinette with purpose, and as they got closer Marinette could see their bodies consisted of a single ball of black fluff, lacking eyes but with a round mouth full of spinning teeth, like a circular saw.

“Guess waiting is out the window anyway,” Marinette said. She took a few steps back before bracing herself for action.

“Get to the center, defeat the Witch, don’t hold back and don’t hesitate,” she recited, eyeing the approaching spider horde. “Right, I can do this. Tikki, spots-”

A whistling sound, a brush of wind by Marinettes ear, and the lead spider fell back with a scream, pinned to the floor by an ornate silver dagger.

Marinette froze in shock, as did the spiders.

Someone else did not.

From behind Marinette came a dozen more flying daggers, whistling through the air and gleaming like shooting stars, each one striking a spider with lethal accuracy. The spiders shrieked as they were impaled while their surviving brethren retreated to safety, scuttling back into the void between the cards and threads. Within seconds of the first daggers appearance all the spiders were gone.

“My goodness, are you alright?” A new voice asked.

Marinette spun around, Tikki diving down to hide.

Coming down the path was a girl, about Marinettes age. Her brown hair was tied back in a pair of long braids, with bangs covering her forehead that also served to bring attention to her bright green eyes. She work a green cami dress that stopped just above her knees over a long sleeved white shirt, with knee high brown boots.

She had one hand held slightly in front of her with what looked like a green, glowing faberge egg with gold filigree in front of her, providing a source of light.

“Did any of them get to you?” The girl asked as she stopped a respectful distance away from Marinette. Marinette shook her head, eyes wide as she tried to process this new development.

The girl smiled. “Good. And I’m glad to see you kept your senses. Not many people can do that, and it’ll make things easier.”

She closed her fist around the egg-sized jewel. With a burst of green light it disappeared and reformed as a silver ring around her middle finger, with a small green gem. Marinette snapped back to herself with quick shake of her head and took a step back, pointing a finger at the newcomer.

“Hold on! What did you do? Who are you??”

The green eyed girl held up her hands, keeping a soft smile on her face.

“My name is Felicity Dionne. I understand this must all be very confusing and frightening for you, but we can’t linger here. If we want to escape, we have to get to the center of this…place.”

Felicity held out her hand. “I can explain more as we go, and I’ll need you to come with me so I can keep you safe. I know we just met, but do you think you can trust me for now?”

Marinette looked at Felicity, glanced down at her offered hand, then back at Felicity.

She felt she was a pretty good judge of character overall, and Felicity…something about her just radiated sincerity. Whatever else was happening, Marinette felt in her gut this girl truly wanted to help.

Decision made, Marinette reached out and clasped Felicity’s hand.

“I’m Marinette Dupain-Cheng. And I’d be pretty stupid not to too, since it looks like you’re the only one who knows what’s going on,” Marinette said, forcing a note of lightness.

Felicity’s smile turned rueful. “You’d be surprised how many people can’t get past the whole 14-year old girl thing long enough to listen. At least you don't have that problem. Now come, we’d best hurry before someone else gets hurt.”

Felicity took off down the tunnel at a light jog, at first pulling Marinette along but dropping her hand once it was clear Marinette would stay close.

“So mind telling me where we are?” Marinette asked. She had Tikki’s abbreviated explanation, sure, and Marinette didn’t doubt it was correct. But _Felicity_ didn’t know that, and while Marinette felt she could trust the girl enough to help her with the immediate situation she was still interested in how Felicity would choose to answer. Perhaps it was slightly underhanded, but it was an effective way to gauge her character quickly.

Felicity first waved a hand around to indicate the world around them. “For starters, we’re inside what’s called a Labyrinth…”

For the most part Felicity’s explanation matched Tikki’s, while also adding that the spider creatures they encountered were the Witches Familiars. Individually they weren’t as dangerous as the actual Witch, but they sometimes separated themselves from their Witches and could still pose a great danger after they escaped.

“The Labyrinth will collapse and disappear once the Witch is no longer around to maintain it, so I personally prefer to avoid fighting them to conserve my energy and focus on the Witch whenever possible,” Felicity was saying, still running ahead. That reminded Marinette of an _incredibly pertinent_ question.

“Wait, how ARE you able to fight Witches anyway? How did you do the thing with the daggers before? Why are you fighting Witches at all?”

Felicity came to an abrupt stop and held a fist up. Marinette recognized the signal and skidded to a stop right behind her. That was when she realized where they were.

The tunnel had come to an end, and emptied into a huge round room with red walls dotted with the black entrances of what Marinette presumed to be dozens upon dozens of other tunnels. The floor was obsidian black, and Marinette would have mistaken it for the void if it wasn’t for the erratic white cracks that spider webbed across the entire surface.

In the center of the room was what Marinette could only assume was the Witch itself.

It was about the height of a two story building, dressed in an elaborate black and red dress that could have come out of an elizabethan painting, complete with a wide white ruffled collar. However the collar only serviced to highlight that the Witch was completely missing a head, with only darkness where the neck would be. It also held a golden scepter with a heavy round head in one hand.

The red threads Marinette had seen before were here too, but now they served to hold the witch by the shoulders and arms, moving it around like it was simply a puppet.

Felicity put a hand on Marinettes shoulder, prompting her to look at her.

“Stay up here and you’ll be safe.” Felicity sternly instructed, bringing her other hand up and summoning the egg jewel again. Her face softened again with a smile. “No matter what happens, I’m getting you out of here, okay?”

Marinette met her gaze and could only nod.

Felicity turned and approached the lip of the tunnel edge. Still facing away, she spoke again.

“Oh. And to answer your questions? All three of them?”

She spun back around with a grin.

“I’m a Magical Girl.”

She took a flying leap backward with arm spread out as she was engulfed in brilliant, sparkling green light. When it faded Felicity was suspended in the air wearing a glittering emerald green long sleeved mini dress with gold trim, along with pale green tights and dark green ballet slippers with ribbons that went up to below her knees. Around her waist was a gold belt with a round green jewel in the center.

Marinette had less than a second to gape at Felicity’s transformation before the girl was reclaimed by gravity. She landed gracefully and was racing toward the Witch, who in turned seemed to have spotted her and was turning to face full on.

Tikki came out from hiding in Marinettes purse. “Just so you know, while I still advocate keeping your identity secret whenever possible I will not be opposed if you felt Ladybugs intervention was absolutely necessary here.”

The Witch let out an inhuman screech and brown the scepter down like a club. Felicity leapt to the side with the grace of a ballet dancer, cleanly avoiding the blow even as the weapon left a crater in the floor. The Witch raised it again for another blow, but again and again Felicity avoided with with such ease and grace it was like watching a choreographed dance.

“For once, I’m not sure if Ladybug is even going to be needed,” Marinette said, not daring to look away or blink lest she miss a thing.

Another smash of the scepter, but this time Felicity daintily leapt on top and dashed along the length and up the arm. The Witch slapped at her with its free hand, this time connecting and sending her flying through the air.

Marinette gasped in horror, but Felicity curled up as she hit the curve of the ceiling and kicked off with the ease of a swimmers flip turn, speeding back like a flying bullet. The Witch screeched as she zipped passed, twin silver cuts appearing across its torso.

Felicity rolled into her landing and came up in a crouch, daggers in each hand. Not a single motion wasted, not a breath lost as she let the daggers fly farther and faster than what should have been humanly possibly, sending them into the exposed cracks. The Witch appeared to stumble back, swinging on its marionette strings. Felicity gave no quarter, swinging her arms out before her and releasing half a dozen daggers at a time, never dropping her smile.

The cracks widened further, a brilliant silver light spilling out. The Witch tried to recoup and brought the scepter down again. Once again Felicity leapt back to avoid the blow, and once again she leapt forward to stand on top, but this time she stayed put. The Witch swung the scepter up, and Felicity used the momentum of the upswing to power her one leap straight up, sailing so high she appeared to nearly touch the impossibly high ceiling. She threw both hands up, and like twinkling stars what must have been a hundred daggers appeared above her. Felicity hovered a moment longer, an angel come down to deliver judgment, then cast her hands down.

“SILVER RAIN!”

At once all the daggers came down on the Witch as it released a final, ear piercing screech. The cracked armor exploded and Marinette was forced to briefly avert her eyes as the world was filled with silver light as the Witch died.

It faded quickly, and Felicity landed on the ground of the now empty chamber, flipping one of her braids off her shoulder.

“Wow,” was all Marinette could say.

The world shivered again, but this time it was the Labyrinth disappearing and the real world returning. Marinette was back in the side street she was before, Felicity just a little ways ahead with her back to her. With another flash of green light her costume disappeared and was replaced by her normal clothes.

Felicity took a few steps forward and picked up something from the ground Marinette couldn’t see, then moved to pick up a small brown backpack that had been tossed to the side of the road. Only then did she turn to face Marinette again, still with her ever present smile.

“Well, that was quite an introduction, wasn’t it?” She quipped.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Fortunately Felicity was more familiar with the area than Marinette was, and was able to lead them back to familiar territory. Thirty minutes after escaping the Labyrinth the two were sitting on a bench under some trees at the park, both nursing hot chocolates, Marinette trying to gather her scattered thoughts into comprehensible questions and Felicity patiently waiting her out.

“So…you’re a Magical Girl.” Marinette finally said, not looking up from her paper cup. Felicity finished taking a sip and nodded.

“Yep.”

“And you fight Witches.”

“Yep.”

“Regularly?”

“More or less.”

Marinette chewed her lip for a moment as she thought. “We’ll get back to the Magical Girl thing in a minute, but what exactly ARE Witches, really? Other than the stuff of nightmares apparently.”

Felicity leaned back on the the bench, looking thoughtful as she appeared to contemplate the question.

“Witches are…they’re like the manifestations of human despair. They exist only to spread hurt and misery through their curses, and actively seek out human prey. Anytime there’s a rash of unexplained suicides, disappearances, or random acts of violence, chances are a Witch is behind it. They can appear anywhere, but you’re most likely to find them in places of great negative emotions - recent accident sites where people died, hospitals, murder sites, places like that.”

Felicity paused, and gave Marinette a sidelong long.

“Witches seek out humans who already have seeds of deep sadness or anger in their hearts,” she continued, her tone carefully neutral. “If the Witch had targeted you, then…”

Marinette frowned in brief confusion, then her eyes widened in shock and horror as she remembered what she had been thinking before Tikki grabbed her attention.

“I was…I was mad at this classmate of mine,” Marinette said, her hand coming up to cover her mouth with dawning horror. “I…I was _furious_ with her, more furious than I can remember ever being, and I was just…I’ve never wanted to actually _hurt_ her before but if she had been standing in front of me I think I would have actually…oh my God what is WRONG with me??”

Felicity swiftly put her drink down and grabbed Marinette by both shoulders, forcing her to face her.

“Marinette, listen to me. The Witch only needs a kernel of emotion to blow it out of proportion. That does NOT mean what you felt represents who you really are as a person. That was the Witches curse trying to hurt you and use you to hurt other people. It doesn’t mean you would actually hurt anyone on your own, it doesn’t mean you’re actually a violent person at your core.

“It’s just like when Hawkmoth takes advantage of peoples emotions to Akumatize them. NO ONE with more than two brain cells thinks their Akuma form represents who they truly are as a person either, right?”

Marinettes mind flashed back to the Akumas she had fought before. Some were more dangerous than others, some more justified in their anger than others, but Felicity was right - they were just more victims of Hawkmoth, who preyed on them when they were vulnerable. Not once did Marinette ever blame the victims themselves, because Hawkmoth was the one ultimately to blame.

“That’s…right,” Marinette said. “You’re right. I’ve never blamed them, because it was Hawkmoths fault. And this time, it was the Witches fault.”

Felicity smiled in relief, releasing Marinettes shoulders.

“Well, you can see why it’s so important to hunt them down as fast as possible. Most people can’t see Witches as all, which is why it falls to Magical Girls like me to fight them. No one else can do what we do.”

“Right, Magical Girls. Wow. How did you even become a Magical Girl to begin with? I mean, you were _amazing_ back there, but where did your powers come from.”

Felicity opened her mouth, but the answer did not come from her.

“I gave them to her.”

Marinette jumped in her seat and spun her head around to find the new speaker, only to find a white cat sitting on the back of the bench just behind her. Only it wasn’t like any cat Marinette had ever seen.

“WAAAAAAH!”

Marinette screamed and flailed so hard she ended up falling completely off the bench to the ground.

The creature calmly regarded her. “I’m sorry for startling you, it wasn’t my intention.”

The creature had the base body of a white cat, if Marinette had to compare it to anything at all, except it had an especially fluffy tail and an additional pair of what looked like rabbit ears with flared tips coming out of the cat hears on top of its head. It didn’t have a nose that Marinette could see, but it had a mouth like a sideways 3, giving it a look of a permanent smile, and eyes that were like small pink two-toned marbles. It also had a pair of golden rings suspended around the lower part of its rabbit ears, and Marinette could also make out a red circle design on its back.

She might have considered it cute, if its unblinking, unwavering stare didn’t push it closer to creepy.

For her part, Marinette could only point and ask “WHAAAT?? WHAT are you, HOW are you talking, and WHERE did you come from??”

The creature tilted (his? Her? The voice was remarkably gender neutral and could have belonged to a girl or a young boy) _their_ head to the side in apparent confusion.

“After what just happened, AND living in Paris for the past two months, am I _really_ the strangest thing you’ve ever seen before?”

Okay, that was a fair point. Now that Marinette thought out it, the small rabbit/cat thing by itself barely ranked Marinettes personal Top Ten. Marinette stood up and dusted herself off as Felicity waived a hand between them

“Kyubey, this is Marinette. I just pulled her out of a Labyrinth today. Marinette, this is Kyubey. He’s the one who made me a Magical Girl.”

“Pleasure to make your acquaintance,” Kyubey said, ducking his(?) head in a quick bow. Marinette automatically returned the gesture.

“Nice to meet you. Um, sorry for the screaming and yelling thing.”

“No worries. I’ve dealt with more explosive greetings. At least you didn’t throw anything at me.”

Marinette took a seat on the bench again, and Kyubey leapt off the back to sit next to her.

“So, you…make…Magical Girls?” Marinette asked. Kyubey nodded.

“That’s right. More specifically, I seek out girls with potential and offer them a Contract. If they make a Contract with me, I transform them into Magical Girls and give them the power to hunt and fight Witches. In return for accepting this duty, I grant them one wish.”

Marinettes eyebrows raised at that. “What kind of wish?”

“Any kind of wish, no matter how big or small.”

Now her eyebrows were as high as they could go. She glanced back at Felicity, who nodded in confirmation.

“That’s…quite a blank check you’re offering,” Marinette said.

“I am asking them to risk their lives to fight Witches,” Kyubey pointed out. “It’s only fair I be willing to grant them their deepest hearts desire in return.”

Felicity excitedly clapped her hands together, grabbing Marinettes attention again.

“You were able to snap out of the Witches control back there and even keep a level head the whole time,” she said cheerfully. “That means you’re qualified to be a Magical Girl too, if you wanted.”

Immediately Marinettes head was sent spinning, what she could do with an unlimited wish and if she could juggle being a Magical Girl along with being Ladybug and what new powers she could have and if she could design her own costume or not and maybe even boost her Ladybug abilities with-

“Marinette has potential, certainly,” Kyubey said slowly. “But I cannot offer her a Contract as she is right now.”

Felicity and Marinette both started at him, the latter in mild surprise and the former in clear shock.

“Seriously? I was stuck in a bed when you found me, and you didn’t have any problem offering me a Contract!” Felicity said incredulously.

“Your situations aren’t comparable, so that doesn’t actually matter,” Kyubey said. “Don’t worry Marinette, this isn’t anything against you personally.”

“No offense taken,” Marinette said, mentally (and sheepishly) shelving her Magical Girl costume designs. Realistically she would have had to turn it down anyway, so at least she was saved that awkwardness.

Felicity pulled her cellphone from her schoolbag and frowned at the time.

“I need to get going, but do you want my number just in case?”

Marinette perked up at that.

“Absolutely!”

She had dropped her purse by her feet, so Marinette bent down to retrieve her cell phone, but as she started to pull it out it out she felt resistance. Confused, Marinette found Tikki holding on to the phone, looking up at her Chosen entreatingly and gently shaking her head.

Marinette was further confused, but she also felt a flash if irritation. What was Tikkis deal? Felicity saved her life, was basically another superhero who fought to protect others, and unlike Ladybug she didn’t get any thanks for it. And for some reason Tikki didn’t want Marinette to even have her number??

Marinette gave a firm tug and pulled it from Tikki’s grasp, ignoring the twinge of guilt at Tikkis expression.

~*~*~*~*~*~

The irritation stayed with Marinette all the way home, like a bit of sand stuck in her shoe. It wasn’t improved when as soon as they were safely back in Marinettes room Tikki came out of the bag to say “I don’t think it’s safe to stay in contact with Felicity.”

Marinette looked at her in shock.

“How can you say that?!” She exclaimed, tossing her purse onto the bed. “She saved my life back there! She’s like her own kind of superhero, except she’s doing it completely in secret! Everyone in Paris knows what Ladybug and Chat Noir are doing, but Felicity doesn’t get any thanks for it. And you _knew_ about Witches and Labyrinths and Magical Girls all along, didn’t you?”

Tikki stayed silent, which was all the confirmation Marinette needed.

“Why didn’t you ever tell me? Didn’t you think I needed to know something like that was happening under my nose?”

“I’m sorry Marinette,” Tikki said. “I would have if I could, but I couldn’t tell you anything about that before now. Even now I can’t tell anything more than what you’ve already learned.”

Marinette threw her hands up in frustration. “And you couldn’t have told me any of this _before_ I walked into a Labyrinth?”

“Don’t be too hard on Tikki, she really wasn’t able to tell you anything.”

Marinette started at the new but recently familiar voice. She looked around herself, then up at her skylight. Looking down on her was none other that Kyubey himself.

“May I come in?” He asked.

Marinette missed the way Tikki stiffened, moving up to open the skylight. Kyubey leapt to Marinettes shoulder, and once Marinette was back down he leapt off again to Marinettes desk and took a seat.

“What are you doing here?” Tikki asked coldly. Marinette looked at her in surprise, but Kyubey seemed undisturbed by the Kwamis chilly greeting.

“To answer the questions that I knew Marinette would ask that you wouldn’t be able to answer,” he replied. “And to help explain our Accord.”

Kyubey turned his attention to Marinette.

“I don’t know how much you know about Tikki and her kind, but her people and mine go back millennia. I honestly have no idea which of us came first, but our peoples became aware of each other around the dawn of human civilization.”

Sensing a long story, Marinette pulled out her desk chair to take a seat.

“After some unfortunate events, we eventually created an Accord that was meant to keep our respective dealings as separate as possible. Contracts are never offered to past or present Miraculous holders, nor can I ever offer contracts to their close friends and family. I’ll usually also avoid acquaintances they see on a daily basis if there’s a chance they could become friends later.”

“Since we can only have one Chosen at a time and Kyubey can make multiple contacts, when it’s time to find new Chosen we get priority, which is a big part of why we agreed to enter this Accord in the first place,” Tikki added, somewhat reluctantly. “It helps to make sure the boundaries stay firm and clear. Probably the biggest part of the Accord is that we’re not allowed to reveal any information about the other unless they’ve revealed it first. The Accord does includes a caveat that allows me to tell you need-to-know information should we ever be trapped in a Labyrinth, since it could mean your life. Had Felicity not shown up, I still wouldn’t have been permitted to tell you about Magical Girls because it wasn’t relevant to your survival.”

“Is that why you’re telling me to stay away from Felicity?” Marinette asked. “Because of this Accord?”

Tikki hesitated for a long moment.

“I’m imploring you to keep your distance for your safety,” she answered slowly. “Ladybug cannot enter or exit Labyrinths, and I fear you’ll find yourself in a situation you can’t get out of. What Felicity is doing is very dangerous, and I don’t want you to get hurt. Your priority should be Hawkmoth and any Akumas he sends, something only you and Chat can handle and what you’re far better suited for. You ability to help Felicity is far more limited, and if you divide your attention between the two you risk failing to do well for either.”

Marinette recalled Felicity fighting the Witch. She had made it look so graceful and effortless, but it was also all too easy to imagine what would have happened if Felicity had been just a little too slow or tripped up just once.

Ladybug would have been defeated long ago if she was fighting alone, but she had Chat Noir at her side and their unwavering trust in each other.

Who did Felicity have?

“I get what you’re saying Tikki, but I can’t ignore this either. I can’t just ignore Felicity after she saved my life. I can’t believe there’s _nothing_ I can do to help.”

“You’re a wonderfully selfless person, and your deep sense of duty is what makes you an excellent Ladybug,” Tikki said. “But not every battle is yours to fight.”

“That doesn’t mean I can’t still help,” Marinette countered. “Most people can’t help me fight Hawkmoth, but I still appreciate everyones support. If I’m not allowed to fight at Felicity’s side, the least I can do is offer my own support.”

Marinette looked at Kyubey. “That would be allowed, right?”

“I cannot encourage your friendship with Felicity, but I cannot stop it either,” Kyubey answered. “As Tikki said, the Accord binds her and my actions, not yours or Felicitys.”

Kyubey stood.

“I should be going. Do you have any final questions about Magical Girls or myself before I go?”

Marinette thought for a moment.

“Would I be allowed to tell Chat about any of this? I feel like I should at least warn about Witches and Labyrinths.”

“I won’t tell you to keep secrets from your partner, but I ask that you do not reveal the identities of any Magical Girls to him, not without their permission.”

Fair enough.

With a few leaps and one kick off the wall Kyubey was up and out the skylight again. Rather than leaving right away he turned to look down on Marinette and Tikki again.

“Farewell you two. Marinette, if you think of anymore questions you can ask Felicity or contact me through her. And please, don’t think too harshly of Tikki - I know she only has your best interests at heart.”

“No one asked for your opinion!” Tikki snapped at him, shocking Marinette again. Again, Kyubey seemed utterly unconcerned with Tikki’s hostility.

“Be that as it may, it’s the simple truth. Good day.”

With that he turned and disappeared from sight.

Marinette gave Tikki a thoughtful look. “You obviously don’t like Kyubey at all. Can he be trusted?”

Tikki pondered the question for a moment.

“I trust that he will abide by the Accord as he always has. I trust that he will never try to recruit you as a Magical Girl nor try to manipulate your friends and family to make you do something he wants. I believe everything that happened today that led to this meeting was pure coincidence, not some sort of scheme on his part.

“But I do NOT trust him to ever have your best interest at heart. I believe he had an ulterior motive in coming today aside from answering what I could not, but I also can’t fathom what he hopes to gain. Everything he does has a purpose, and I don’t like not knowing what he’s thinking.”

“Why do you dislike him so much?” Marinette asked. Tikkis expression turned hard.

“All I can say right now is, we have very different and mutually exclusive philosophies. The Accord prevents me from saying more than that, which I frankly have never hated more than right now.”

“…Is Felicity in danger from him?”

Tikki shook her head. “No. For Felicity, the danger comes from Witches and that’s plenty enough.”

Marinette sighed and fell back onto her bed. She laid there staring at the ceiling, thinking.

Tikki made a good point. While she did sometimes help with other crimes and disasters as Ladybug, she did acknowledge that her primary job was opposing Hawkmoth and she’d need to leave other matters to police, firefighters, paramedics and other first responders. She had to accept that not every problem in the city was hers to solve. As dangerous as Witches were, there was already a system in place to deal with them that seemed to be working just fine without Ladybug.

On the other hand, if she came across a crime or a disaster while she was Ladybug - the helicopter that nearly crashed one time, the occasional burglar, the young woman trapped in a burning building - she felt it was her duty to step in and help _because she had the power to help._ If there were people right in front of her needed her help, she felt it was her moral obligation _to_ help.

Now that she was aware of Witches, wasn’t it her moral obligation to help how she could, help reduce the risks to civilians that much more?

But did she have the right to insert herself, just like that? Was Marinette only being motivated by duty, or was there a little arrogance involved too?

Tikki made her feelings clear on the matter, but as much as Marinette respected her it was hard to reconcile how she always felt about Ladybugs purpose with Tikki telling her to walk away.

Kyubey didn’t seem to care either way so long as Marinette didn’t overstep herself. If he had no issues with it, did that mean Tikki was over reacting a little?

After going round and round in endless mental circles, Marinette could only come with one, clear conclusion.

“I need to talk to Chat.”

~*~*~*~*~*~

“Good evening M’Lady, you’re looking as lovely as ever.”

“Hello to you too, Chat. Sorry for calling you out like this, and I appreciate you meeting up like this.”

“For you, anytime. Besides, cats are nocturnal anyway.”

The two teen superheroes had met up at the top of the Eiffel Tower, which had become their default meeting place. Ladybug liked it because it was close to where she lived and went to school, and offered an excellent view of the city while also having a huge empty plaza surrounding it, making it easy to spot approaching danger.

Chat liked it because, as he repeatedly pointed out, it was one of the most romantic spots in Paris. Especially at night, as it was right then.

Chat retracted the baton he used to pole vault to the top of the tower and leaned back against the railing. “You doing okay? You don’t usually call me outside of patrols like this when there isn’t an Akuma.”

“It’s a unique situation, and I could really use your opinion on this.”

Chat straightened, giving Ladybug his full, undivided attention. Ladybug felt a swell of appreciation for her partner. As goofy, silly and flirty as he could get, he also knew when it was time to be serious, and she appreciated he recognized this as one of those times.

“You should know,” she began, standing opposite of her partner, “that what I’m going to tell you will sound outrageous and impossible, but I’ll need you to remember we live in a world of magic and heroes and weekly villains, and means anything is possible, even things we never though could even happen.”

Chats eyes widened in shock.

“Oh my God, you and Chloé became friends for real.”

Ladybug paused.

“Okay, maybe not that outrageous.”

And so Ladybug dived into what happened.

About how she was caught in a Labyrinth as a civilian, how it drew her in without her realizing by feeding on her festering anger, how she was rescued by an honest-to-God _Magical Girl_ who transformed with magic and everything, though Ladybug withheld her name. How amazing and strong and graceful she looked as she fought, how terrifying and warped the Witch appeared, how alien and perverse the Labyrinth had felt when she was in it, like it was barely holding itself together, how terrifying and strange the spider Familiars were as they swarmed.

About how ordinary girls became Magical Girls by entering a contract with a strange creature called Kyubey, in exchange for a single, limitless wish. How Kyubey came to see her afterwards, what he said about the Accord between him and the kwamis, and what that meant for them versus what it meant for Miraculous holders and Magical Girls.

About how Tikki urged Ladybug to walk away, and how she felt that to do so would be selfish and irresponsible.

At some point in the telling Ladybug moved to stand next to Chat, leaning against the railing too look out at the City. Chat also turned round toward the city, but never once interrupted Ladybug as she spoke.

“I keep going back and forth on what I should do and I’m getting nowhere,” she admitted, keeping her gaze on the city lights spread out before her. “I just…I really needed someone to talk to, and there’s no one else I trust more with this than you.”

She turn to half look at him with a wry smile. “I know this all sounds crazy, so if you want to confirm with your kwami first-”

“I believe you.”

Ladybugs eyebrows shot up at Chats immediate response. It was his turn to grin.

“I believe you, because I’ll alway believe _in_ you. I don’t need to talk to Plagg to know everything you’re telling me now it true.”

Ladybug had no trouble handling Chat when he was being a ridiculous flirt, but pure and simple sincerity? Ladybug had to lower her head to hide watery eyes.

“What did I do to deserve a partner like you?” She asked.

Chat bumped his shoulder against hers. “That’s my line.”

Ladybug kept her head down a moment longer to make sure she was composed. She looked back at Chat. “So, if it were you, what would do?”

Chat cocked his head to the side and contemplated for several seconds. When he answered, it was with genuine curiosity.

“Did you try asking the Magical Girl?”

Ladybug blinked. Twice.

Chat shrugged. “You talked about this like it’s your decision to make, but since only Magical Girls can find and enter Labyrinths it sounds to me like you can’t do anything unless a Magical Girl _wants_ you to. So, why not ask her if she wants help? If she does, great, we can come up with a way Ladybug can get involved. If she doesn’t, then you should respect that.”

Chat paused.

“I might have to stay out of it though.”

“What!” Ladybug explained, pushing off the railing. Chat matched her and held his hands up.

“Don’t get me wrong, I would LOVE to help if I could. I mean, actual Magical Girls! For real! My inner anime-fanboy is _screaming_ right now!”

“Okay, so what’s the problem?”

“Well, she met your civilian identity first, right? If I get involved, isn’t there a really high chance of me finding out your civilian identity through her?”

Ladybug stared at him for a few seconds, then slowly lowered her head into her hands.

“I am so stupid,” she muttered. Chat patted her on the shoulder.

“Hey, don’t say that about my favorite girl.”

Done with wallowing, Ladybug lifted her head again and took a deep breath.

“Alright. Tomorrow morning I’ll shoot her a text and ask if she wants to meet up this weekend. I think it’d be a little suspicious to drop the Ladybug question right away, so maybe I should get to know her a bit first, see how she’s already doing or how much help she actually needs. Depending how it goes, I might not even have to ask at all. And if I do, she might take it more seriously if she knows me a little better too.”

“That’s my girl!” Chat cheered. “How about a swing around the city to celebrate the new plan? I’ve still got plenty of energy to burn.

Ladybug laughed and took out her yo-yo.

“Race you to the Arc de Triomphe then!” She said, taking a flying leap off the tower with an eager Chat at her heels.

Chat was a great partner, because he was perfect for bouncing ideas off of and could help her untangle her thoughts. He really was one of the best friends she could ask for.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments are always appreciated, even if it's just a one word "nice". :)
> 
> 10/11/20 Minor edits and corrections.


	3. Sacrifice

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Y'know, when I drafted this story I had a certain idea of how the labyrinth would look and how the fight scene would go. As I was actually typing, both decided to morph into their own entities. I'm like 'stop that! I don't know where this is going anymore!' XD

The following Saturday morning found Marinette and Felicity at an outdoor cafe not far from Marinettes home, sharing lightheaded conversation and trading stories as they ate.

“Seriously? You had an ACTUAL Akuma playing the monster, AND Ladybug and Chat Noir battling it, and your film _still didn’t qualify_?” Felicity asked incredulously, forkful of eggs briefly forgotten.

“Yep.” Marinette said, popping the ‘p’. “Apparently Mayor Bourgeois didn’t think the monster looked realistic or something.”

“Wow. I can’t even. Seriously, how DID you get Ladybug and Chat Noir to let you use the footage? You guys must have made a really good impression on them to get them to agree.”

Marinette went very, very still. Felicity slowly lowered her fork.

“You…DID get permission to use them in your film first, right?”

Marinette gave a nervous laugh. “Well, they didn’t say…we…couldn’t?”

Felicity gave a little sigh. “Sorry to say this, but maybe you guys not qualifying was for the best. Using their image without permission for your benefit? If it were me, I would NOT be okay with that. It’s kinda sketchy, you know?”

Seeing as Marinette couldn’t exactly tell Felicity she WAS Ladybug and didn’t mind and didn’t think Chat would mind either, she could only sheepishly shrug.

As Felicity finished up the last of her eggs, Marinette took a quick look around and assured herself that no one was sitting close enough to be in easy hearing distance.

“Felicity, would you mind if I asked a bit more about the whole Magical Girl thing?”

“I was wondering when we’d get to this,” Felicity said, patting her mouth with a napkin. “At least you took me to breakfast first. What would you like to know?”

Marinette had had a few days to ponder what she had recently learned, and one point from Kyubey stuck withher. Namely, about how Tikki could only have one Chosen at a time but Kyubey could create multiple contracts.

“So, are you the only Magical Girl in Paris right now?”

Felicity shook her head. “No, there are two others. One of them contracted two months ago, and the other came to Paris about a month ago. I have no idea how long she’s been a Magical Girl, but she seems quite experienced. I’ve been a Magical Girl for six months now, and I get the feeling she’s been doing this for at least as long if not longer.”

Marinette leaned forward on her elbows, resting her chin on her laced fingers.

“So you all fight Witches together then?”

Felicity barked out a harsh laugh, startling Marinette.

“Sorry. Honestly it’s really rare for Magical Girls to work together, because we’re more likely to see each other as competition. The new girl that showed up last month? The first thing she did was attack me to try and carve out territory for herself.”

Marinette straightened up in shock.

“What?? Why? You’re both Magical Girls and you both agreed to fight Witches. Wouldn’t it make more sense to work together? And why would you see each other as competition at all?”

Felicity held up a finger for a moment, then bent over to reach into her bag. When she sat up again, in her hand she held what looked like a black and grey Gothic style spinning top, except with a spherical body. It stood on a long needle that balanced impossibly on its tip in the palm of Felicity’s hand.

“This is why,” she explained. “This is a Grief Seed. Witches will drop them after they are defeated.”

In her other hand she summoned the green egg jewel she had before.

“This is my Soul Gem, the source of my magic. It can do almost anything I need it to, but some actions will require more energy and my magical storage is not infinite. To recharge my Soul Gem, I need to collect Grief Seeds. This seed came from the Witch you saw me fight before. Watch this.”

Felicity brought the seed and gem together, but not enough to touch. When they were close, the gem glowed brighter as shadowy particles drifted from the gem and into the seed. It only lasted a few seconds, but the gem was noticeably brighter at the end of it.

“See?” Felicity said, holding the gem up a little higher. “Obviously having a wish granted is a huge incentive to sign on, but the Grief Seeds are how we get paid to keep working. They don’t keep forever, but the more you have in reserve the more freely you can use magic. You have the luxury to use it for little things to make every day life easier or more enjoyable. Personally, I love to dance and when I had a Grief Seed surplus I’d sometimes use magic to remove my fatigue or strengthen my legs a little to improve my performances. I even used my magic to heal my ankle when I landed badly one time. My teacher had no idea I was ever hurt.”

“Wow.” Marinette breathed. Then her eyebrows stiffened in confusion. “Wait. Were you saving the seed just to show me this?”

Felicity chuckled. “No, I’m just trying to save my Grief Seeds for when I really need a recharge. I don’t mind giving a demonstration, but we’ve been in a bit of a Witch drought lately and I don’t want to be wasteful. Sadly I’m back to achy legs after dance practice again.”

“Okay, I’m with you so far.” Marinette said slowly. “How come they don’t keep though? Do they go bad?”

Felicity tilted her head in consideration. “Sort of? Witches drop Grief Seeds, but they also hatch from them. Given enough time another Witch can emerge from this seed again.”

Marinette reeled back in her chair away from the seed, as if it were about to leap and latch onto her face.

“This one is nowhere near that point though, so we’re safe for now,” Felicity continued smoothly. “I’ll try to get as much milage out of it as I can first, but before it gets dangerous I’ll give it to Kyubey to dispose of permanently.”

Marinette slowly relaxed in her chair again as Felicity put the Grief Seed back in her bag.

“Okay, so I kind of get that.” Marinette said. “It sucks, but I can get why some girls wouldn’t want to share the spoils, and if you can’t really stockpile them then you gotta get them while you can. But how is Paris not big enough for all three of you to live without fighting?”

“That’s a really good question,” Felicity said, and she really did look impressed that Marinette thought to ask. “And normally it would be. When I started off Paris could support four or five girls easily. As I said, we’ve been having a bit of drought, and there haven’t been enough Witches to support that many girls. Honestly there’s barely enough for the three of us, and that’s only because me and one other girl _are_ working together to share seeds. We’re lucky this struck when we didn’t have than many active Magical Girls.”

“Wait wait back up - so you ARE working with one of the girls?”

“We don’t fight Witches together, if that’s what you’re imagining, but we do share Grief Seeds to make sure we both have enough, and we work together to keep the girl who attacked me in check. Kyubey introduced us when he approached her about a contract because she wanted a chance to talk to an active Magical Girl before she decided anything, and we’ve been in touch ever since. I even joined her first couple of fights to help her get started.”

“Wow. She sounds really cool. I’m bet you’re glad to have back up like that.”

Felicity’s expression subtly changed to complete blankness. She straightened her her back and folded her hands on her lap.

“She does take her Magical Girl responsibilities seriously and with enthusiasm. We both agree that the safety of civilians should come before personal gain, and she is willing to cooperate when most girls would seek their own advantage first. Since she respects me as the senior Magical Girl, she is willing to listen to me even when she has her own ideas, which is all I can ask for.”

Marinette took in the stiff posture, the controlled expression, the carefully neutral tone that made what should have been praise sound more like a recitation of facts, and concluded:

“…You absolutely cannot stand her, can you?”

Felicity kept up the facade for a moment longer before she slumped forward.

“I know I shouldn’t complain, but my god she is sooooooo annoying!” Felicity quietly wailed. Marinette had to bite her lip to keep from laughing.

“I mean, I’m all for confidence and believing in yourself but MY GOD she can be such a diva!” Felicity continued, laying her head in her arms on the table. “I’m pretty sure her parents raised her in a literal bubble because she has NO IDEA how the real world works but is 100% convinced it revolves around her. And vain! She’s so freaking vain! In our first battle she’s all ‘nooo my outfit will be ruined’ and I’m like ‘it’s a freaking magic suit it’ll be fine’ and I swear to god I was THIS close to just throwing her at the Witch because she was more useful as a projectile weapon than a Magical Girl back then. And I know I’m lucky because she at least _respects_ me, I don’t even want to imagine what a nightmare she can be for anyone else. But does it have to be this haaaard??”

Marinette reached over and gave Felicity a comforting pat on the head.

A waiter came over with the check, and when Felicity tried to raise her head Marinette gently pushed it back down again.“Uh uh, I’m treating you today. You just rest your head and let it aaaall out.”

Felicity relaxed her head in her arms and quietly bemoaned her ‘back up’ some more while Marinette counted out cash for an apathetic waiter.

Meal paid for, the pair vacated the table and strolled together in the general direction of the park. Felicity summoned her Soul Gem and held it out in front of her, dividing her attention between it and where she was walking. Marinette raised a brow at it.

“Um…”

“I have a regular patrol I do and a general territory, but sometimes if I’m walking about anyway I’ll keep my gem out so I can detect any Witches nearby, just in case.” Felicity explained. “We’re technically in my ‘backups’ territory, but since we share seeds she doesn’t mind too much. She’ll go into my territory too if she knows I’m busy with a recital or dance practice.”

Right, and that nicely gave Marinette a chance to steer the conversation back to the mystery girl that Felicity worked with in spite of deeply disliking her.

“Honestly, that girl sounded a lot like a classmate of mine, only mine absolutely hates me,” Marinette said. “If she’s that bad, why did Kyubey make her a Magical Girl in the first place? Shouldn’t he look for girls who are more more…more…”

“Heroic? Compassionate? Empathetic? Self-aware?”

“I guess?”

“If it were up to you and me, then yeah that’d be the kind of person we’d look for. But Kyubey doesn’t think that way. One of the things I like best about him is that he’s the most non-judgmental person I’ve ever met - all he looks for is potential and a willingness to fight Witches, so he offers opportunities to girls you and I might not even consider. And as much as I might complain about her, once she got past the growing pains I have to admit she’s objectively a very good Magical Girl.”

Felicity’s expression soured. “Unfortunately being a decent person the rest of the time isn’t a requirement.”

Marinette nodded in sympathy. “And you can’t just avoid her because you do have to cooperate with her somewhat.”

“To stay supplied with Grief seeds without having to fight another Magical Girl, yeah. I prefer to limit contact and just not engage with her the best I can. Just let it all slide off me like water off a…ducks…back.”

Felicity slowed to a stop, Marinette following her lead. Felicity moved the gem around her in a circle, then back and forth a little, seeming to hone in a direction. Marinette instinctively held her breathe, as if the slightest sound could break Felicity’s concentration.

Felicity burst forward in a sprint, crossing the road and rushing down the street, Marinette at her heels.

They came to a stop at a store front that seemed to be undergoing renovations, though no one was working at the moment. Felicity contemplated the building for a moment before giving a firm nod. “Definitely here.”

Felicity gave Marinette an apologetic look. “Sorry Marinette. This shouldn’t take long, but you don’t have to wait up if you don’t want to.”

And here it was. Marinette hadn’t expected to ask this so quick, but she wasn’t one to let an opportunity pass either.

“Let me come with you!”

Felicity stared at her for a moment longer before her eyes went impossibly wide. “You wanna do what now?”

Marinette held up her hands in fists, trying to convey all her determination and resolve.

“I know I can’t help you fight, but what you’re doing is amazing and I want to help and support you however I can. And part of that is watching what you do, so I can really understand it!”

Felicity slowly blinked, then turned fully to face Marinette.

“You…aren’t you scared? You’ve already been a Labyrinth and seen a Witch, and you still…?”

This was the hard part. Marinette couldn’t exactly say ‘I’m actually already a superhero who fights supervillains on a near weekly basis and that’s why I want to help,’ so she was really going to have to sell this.

Marinette brought her hands together in a pleading gesture.

“Maybe this sounds kind of arrogant, but I really feel like the best way I can help is by understanding and _really seeing_ what you go through and have to face. You don’t have to take me on every fight, and I won’t get in your way. If you tell me no, I won’t push you and I’ll still help and support you in anyway I can. But I truly believe that the better I understand what you go through, the better I’ll understand how I can help from the sidelines. If nothing else, I can at least be someone you can share this with, and that’s got to be worth something, right?”

Felicity gave Marinette a long, silent look. Marinette met her gaze, unwavering.

Finally Felicity let out a short laugh. “Well, how am I supposed to say no after all that?”

Marinette beamed.

Entering a Labyrinth with a Magical Girl was a dramatically different experience than wandering in as a trap. Felicity just held up her gem at a particular wall and a brilliant portal of white and rainbow lights opened. Felicity held tight to Marinette’s hand as they entered the gate.

Marinettes experience was obviously very limited, but this Labyrinth was dramatically different from her first one. For one, they were on top of the Witch almost immediately. For another, the Witch - appearing like a dragonfly made of stained glass, far too beautiful for something so terrible and dangerous - only seemed about half as long as Marinette was tall. It was tricky and evasive, but -

“SILVER RAIN!”

\- it was no match for Felicity.

The world shimmered, and once again the two girls were standing inside an empty, half renovated storefront.

“That was…different.” Marinette commented. “Was that normal for a Witch? And where’s its Grief Seed?”

“That wasn’t a Witch, it was actually a Familiar,” Felicity explained, retrieving her bag from where she tossed it aside before. “I think I mentioned them last time?”

“Right, you said they escape Witches Labyrinths sometimes.”

“They don’t drop Grief Seeds, but left on their own they can eventually grow and become Witches themselves. But to grow, they need to eat, and they’ll have to kill four or five people before they get to that point.”

Felicity looked around at the unmanned work stations, wood planks, and sheet covered furniture. “I would bet no one is working today because this Familiar claimed a victim on this site. Construction provides an easy avenue for ‘accidents.’”

Marinette felt a curdle of sick fear in her stomach. It was frankly terrifying to think of such creatures living in the shadows, unseen and undetected, _hunting_ humans.

Some of the feeling must have showed on Marinettes face, because Felicity’s expression turned sympathetic. “You don’t have to keep following me if you don’t want you. I appreciate the sentiment, I really do, but I understand this is a LOT to handle, especially if you can’t defend yourself.”

Marinette was rapidly shaking her head almost before Felicity was done speaking. “Nope. I make a promise and I am sticking to it!”

“You didn’t actually prom-…you know what, never mind. C’mon, we should got out of here before anyone shows up.”

~*~*~*~*~*~

Felicity didn’t attend College Francoise Dupont, but she did patrol every day after school and Marinette would join her when she could. After a week of shadowing Felicity’s patrols though, they had yet to encounter another Witch or even a Familiar.

“There’s a reason I called this a drought,” Felicity once said. “Encountering a Witch once or twice a week used to be normal, so that should give you an idea how drastic a difference this is. I’d enjoy the peace a lot more if I didn’t have to be ready for a Witch any day.”

While Marinette was glad it meant fewer people in danger, it also made it harder to judge how open Felicity would be to accepting Ladybugs assistance, and so she kept putting off broaching the subject.

Chat Noir was similarly anxious, though for a different reason.

“I feel like the longer you go waiting for something to happen, the worse it’s going to be when it finally arrives. Like the next Witch is going to be bigger and badder the longer it takes to show up.”

“That seems a little superstitious Kitty.”

“I’m the embodiment of bad luck M’Lady. Kinda of comes with the territory.”

~*~*~*~*~*~

“I have a question.”

“Marinette, with only one question? That’s new.”

“Sorry.”

“I’m just kidding, sorry. What’s up?”

“Well, Kyubey can grant any wish at all, right?”

“Far as I know, yes.”

“And I get that if you only get ONE wish, you’re going to want to use it for something that’s super important to you, something impossible.”

“Mm-hm.”

“But if Kyubey is granting wishes all over the place and has been doing it for ages, wouldn’t there be at least one girl who’d wish for world peace or to end world hunger or something? Shouldn’t the world be better than it is?”

“Maybe it is better, and we just can’t tell because we don’t know how much worse it could have been.”

“That’s a scary thought.”

“Seriously though, if it were you would you use your wish for that?”

“….I’d like to think I would be that selfless, and maybe I would if it was a no-strings attached wish, but honestly? If I had to fight Witches in exchange I’m not sure I could do it - ideally I’d want to make a wish that’d help me AND a lot of other people at the same time. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t girls out there more selfless than me.”

“Sure, but maybe they just don’t tend to be the type that’d make good Magical Girls. I mean think about it, a girl that selfless would probably get eaten alive doing this, so why would Kyubey bother offering them contracts?”

“Good point. I’ve got a classmate, Rose, who’s the sweetest, kindest soul you could ever meet, but I can’t imagine her doing this either. The sparkles and magic and pretty dresses, probably dressed head to toe in pink? Absolutely. Fighting for your life against Witches and Magical Girls who want your territory? I’ve never seen her so much as step on a spider!”

“….”

“What?”

“Aren’t you going to ask me what I wished for? That’s what you were leading up to, right?”

“No? I mean if you want to tell me that’s great, but that just seemed like a really personal question and I didn’t think we were there yet.”

“…!”

“Did I say something weird?”

“No! No, I…just wasn’t expecting that, I guess. Thank you. You’re right, my wish was really personal, but I promise I’ll tell you when I’m ready.”

~*~*~*~*~*~

In spite of everything that had changed, Marinette wasn’t going to put the rest of her own life on hold. She still doodled design ideas when the mood struck her, she still hung out with Alya after school when she wasn’t with Felicity, and she even manage to snag the Class Representative role away from Chloé.

And of course Hawkmoth kept the entire city on their toes by sending Darkblade who had a bone to pick with Mayor Bourgeois. Because we can’t have Paris getting too comfortable, can we?

The Saturday after her brunch with Felicity, Marinette decided to spend the morning at the park with her sketch pad. She had some nature themed ideas she’d been working on but struggled to get to look right on paper, so she hoped to find a spark of inspiration.

She wandered around a bit, sketchpad held to her chest, looking for the perfect spot. Some benches by the entrance, the fountain, the grassy field, under the big tree -

Marinette froze in her tracks, eyes frozen on what was sticking to the trees trunk.

“Tikki? Are you seeing what I’m seeing?” She asked in a low voice. Tikki flew out of the purse, and similarly froze.

“We are definitely looking at a Grief Seed,” the kwami confirmed.

The seed was imbedded needle point first in the truck of the tree, slightly above eye level for Marinette. From the puncture point, sickly black lines zigzagged out like veins or cracks. The seed itself pulsed with energy, slow but consistent, like a heart beat.

“This is bad. This is very, VERY bad!” Marinette said and she dug through her purse for her phone. She practically slammed the screen as she selected Felicity’s number, quietly chanting ‘pick up pick up pick up’ and feeling anxiety rise with every ring.

“Hello?”

Marinette nearly melted with relief.

“Felicity! There’s a Grief Seed at the park and I think it’s about to hatch!”

A moment of silence before Felicity quietly cursed.

“I’ll try to get there as soon as I can, but it’s going to take awhile. I’m going to try calling my backup - she has a thing going on this morning, but she’s a lot closer and can get there much faster if she can break away from that. If she can’t, it’ll take me about, um, 20 minutes to get there maybe.”

Marinette looked around her, at the visitors and families enjoying the day, completely unaware of the danger growing among the trees.

“What about the other people here? The closest group is about fifty meters away, but they’ve settled down for a picnic so they’re unlikely to move much closer. I don’t see anyone else that seems to be wandering in this direction, but if we need to I can try to get everyone to clear out by faking an Akuma alert.”

“How would you fake a…?! I have SO MANY questions, but they’ll have to wait. The picnic group should be fine where they are, and the last thing we want is attracting attention and _drawing_ people to the spot instead on accident. Just get back to the entrance so you can show whoever gets there first where the Grief Seed is, you don’t want to be there alone with the Witch hatches.”

Marinette ended up waiting at the park entrance for exactly 22 minutes. She knew, because she counted every second she stood at the gate, constantly peering up and down the street and looking back over her shoulder in the direction of the dormant seed and any people who moved in the direction, a pillar of nervous, anxious tension that could do nothing but _stand there and WAIT_ because Ladybug can’t go into Labyrinths and she couldn’t tell anyone of the danger _right there_ and -

“Marinette!”

“Felicity!”

Marinette rarely felt the level of relief she did as she saw Felicity come barreling down the street, twin braids flapping behind her as she ran.

Felicity skidded to a stop in front of Marinette, not even breathing heavily. Magically enhanced endurance was a beautiful thing.

“Thanks for waiting. I called my back up before I left, but it went to voice mail. I’m guessing she didn’t get it if she’s not here yet.”

“Guess I’ll have to meet her another day then,” Marinette said, even as she started to lead Felicity into the park.

“The laws of irony dictate that she’ll show up as soon as we don’t need her anymore, so you still might.” Felicity quipped.

It only took a few minutes to get back to the tree. Marinette stared in horrified disbelief at the perfectly healthy trunk with no Grief Seed in sight.

“It was here! I swear it was RIGHT THERE! On this tree!”

Felicity placed a calming hand on Marinettes shoulder. “I believe you. If it’s gone, it means the Witch has hatched. You did everything right to keep yourself and the people around here safe.”

She held up her Soul Gem to the tree.

“Now it’s my turn.”

The portal of light and shimmering rainbow opened, and Felicity marched on through. Marinette followed her without a second thought.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Hidden high in the branches of the same tree, Kyubey silently watched the girls disappear into the Labyrinth.

He watched.

He waited.

When the time was right, he calmly stood and walked away, disappearing into the shadows.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Unlike the previous Labyrinth, this one was characterized by vast white empty space. Throughout the space were winding thorny branches above, below, and all around ranging from as thick around as a car to the width of Marinettes arm. It was like being in the middle of a leafless thorn bush suspended in nothing.

No, not nothing. When Marinette looked down, it appeared the branches were all originating from a single point of origin, small in the distance. Marinette lightly tapped Felicity on the arm and pointed down toward it.

“That look like the center to you?”

Felicity nodded, and with a flash of green light she transformed into her Magical Girl uniform. She held a hand out to Marinette.

“The fastest way to get there is straight down, which means I’m going to have to carry you. Piggy back or bridal carry?”

Moments later Marinette was flying through the air on Felicity’s back, gripping her shoulders as Felicity held Marinettes thighs around her waist, leaping from branch to branch as they travelled downward.

Was in inappropriate to whoop with excitement? Maybe.

Did Marinette let out one whoop after a particularly excellent leap? Also maybe.

“WHY did Kyubey say he couldn’t make you a Magical Girl again?” Felicity asked with a laugh after landing. “Because honestly I think you’d be awesome!”

Marinette laughed a little nervously. “Yeah well, you only say that because you haven’t seen how often I trip over my own feet in normal life.”

“Hey, I was paralyzed and stuck in a bed before I became a Magical Girl, a little clumsiness is _nothing!”_

Marinette instantly gave a little gasp. Felicity froze as she realized what she has said. Wordlessly she released Marinette, and Marinette took a few steps back away from Felicity.

“You were paralyzed?” Marinette asked quietly.

Felicity didn’t move, didn’t turn around.

“You love to dance.” Marinette continued quietly. “You have practices and recitals, even your Magical Girl outfit looks like it belongs on a ballet stage. So to become paralyzed? I’m so sorry you went through that, I can’t even imagine what it must have been like for you.”

Felicity finally turned to look at Marinette, eyes glassy.

“That’s the thing,” she said. “Other people who went through what I did? They keep living. They build a new life. They learn to thrive, find new purpose, find something that makes their lives fulfilling. But I didn’t. As dangerous as fighting Witches is, it was still less scary than living the rest of my life that way, so I took the easy way out.

“The truth is, I didn’t become a Magical Girl because I’m particularly brave or strong or selfless. I became a Magical Girl because I was too scared, too weak, and too selfish to accept my new life.”

Felicity let her gaze fall.

“Sorry if that ruins whatever image you had of me.”

Marinette reached over and grabbed both of Felicity’s hands in her own, meeting Felicity surprised expression with fierce empathy.

“I love designing and fashion,” she said. “I’ve loved it since I was little. If I lost my hands or something and couldn’t do it anymore, I can’t imagine what I would do. If that happened to me, and Kyubey offered me a wish, I’d wish to have my dream back too. _That doesn’t make you weak._

 _“_ I haven’t known you for long, but I know that Kyubey chose you because he saw what an amazing person you were going to become, and am so grateful and so honored that I have the privilege of knowing you now.”

Felicity gazed back at Marinette, eyes welling up until the tears finally came.

“Marinette, I…”

That was as far as the Magical Girl got before she dissolved into tears. Marinette gently pulled her into a hug and let the other girl just cry. Felicity only allowed herself to indulge for a minute, but in the short time she unleashed her tears and held onto Marinette like a lifeline.

When she was done she stepped back and took a deep breath, wiping her cheeks with her hands. Marinette offered a tissue from her purse which Felicity gratefully took.

“I’m kind of mad at you now,” she joked lightly, tossing the used tissue over the side. “How am I supposed to look cool fighting a Witch _now?_ ”

“I promise to always think you’re cool,” Marinette promised solemnly. Felicity giggled.

“If I hadn’t already use up my one wish, I might’ve wished you could’ve become a Magical Girl too,” Felicity admitted. “Having someone like you as my backup instead would have been awesome.”

Marinette felt a surge of excitement flow through her body, from her fingers to her toes.

“Well…” Marinette asked slowly. “If you wanted extra back up, have you ever considered asking for a super heroine instead?”

Felicity blinked, blank confusion morphing into understanding.

“You mean Ladybug, right? Honestly, I would LOVE to have her help. A totally awesome fighter, and having someone helping out who _isn’t_ going to fight me for the Grief Seed? I’d tell her in a heartbeat if I thought she’d believe me."

It took all of Marinettes willpower not to start squealing with delight.

“Well, have you ever tried?” She asked instead. “She might be more willing to believe you than you think.”

“No, but it wouldn’t matter because only Magical Girls or potential Magical Girls can even see all this,” Felicity waived a hand around to indicate the environment, “so I wouldn’t be able to prove it to her. She’d probably just think I was crazy at best, or that it has something to do with Hawkmoth.”

“Well…why don't we try anyway?” Marinette offered with a grin. “For all we know, Ladybug already knows about Witches and wants to help. My best friend runs the Ladyblog, I’m sure I can find a way to get a message to Ladybug.”

“Wait, you’re friends with Alya Cesaire?” Felicity gasped. “I LOVE her blog! Can I meet her?”

“Felicity.” Marinette gently held the sides of the other girls face. “Focus. Ladybug?”

“Right, sorry. Seriously though, you think it’s worth trying?”

"At worst, Ladybug won't believe us and nothing changes,” Marinette said, and she surprised herself with how easily the mild deception came. “At best, you gain a new ally you can trust.”

Felicity considered carefully, then gave a sharp nod.

“Good point. Good. Point. Ha, wow, I’m seriously going to do this. Hahaha, oh man, I am going to talk to Lady Freaking Bug. I turn into a sparkly Magical Girl and fight Witches on a regular basis, _why is this freaking me out?!”_

“I’m sure Ladybug will be very flattered by your excitement.” Marinette said with a perky smile. The smile fell as she remembered where they were standing. “But uh, we should probably take care of the Witch first.”

Felicity chuckled, then the pair moved toward the curve of the branch to peer over the edge together.

About a dozen meters below was a massive, tangled mass of thorny branches, maybe five meters wide. It appeared to be the point of origin for all the others growing around them, with more growing even further downward into the empty void.

“We haven’t seen any Familiars, so I’m willing to bet that the Witch is still dormant and is protecting the Grief Seed inside of there,” Felicity said, calm focus falling over her like a shroud.

She summoned a dagger in one hand and started to spin it around. Marinette watch with fascination as it got bigger and bigger with each rotation until it was as long as Felicity was tall, still sitting delicately on one hand.

“If we’re lucky, I can destroy it with a good strong opening move. Even if I can’t one-shot it, I can at least do massive damage.”

With a super human leap Felicity flew into the air and came down in a graceful arc on top of the mass, bringing the giant blade down with a mighty war cry, piercing the thorny mass and releasing a brilliant white light from the crack.

~*~*~*~*~*~

“You need to check your phone.”

“Wha-? Kyubey?? I’m kind of in the middle of something here!”

“Felicity has left you a message. You need to check your phone. Now.”

~*~*~*~*~*~

A massive screech pierced the air as all the branches began to wildly convulse. Marinette kept her balance just long enough to turn her fall into a leap towards a smaller branch below her, hitting hard against her chest and getting grazed in the side by one of the giant thorns. She hissed in pain with what little breath didn’t get knocked out of her, but wasted no time in wrapping her arms and legs around the branch as it continued to thrash angrily.

“FE-LI-CI-TYYYY!” Marinette screamed, but her voice was lost in the cacophony of creaking, splitting wood and rumbling tremors and the _the Witch was still screeching_ and all at once everything just STOPPED.

The change was so abrupt the silence left Marinettes ears ringing. The branch she clung too stopped in a horizontal position, and once she was fairly certain it wasn’t going to move anymore she slowly loosened her arms (but not her legs, need to be ready in case it started again) and raised herself up.

The branches had rearranged themselves into a loosely woven floor, not enough to trap Marinette but well enough to hide the void below them. Enough were left to arch high above them like a natural canopy, but not as densely as they did before. Marinette’s branch was fairly close to the edge of the new stage, not enough to be at risk of falling but putting her a good distance away from the center.

“Marinette! Are you alright? Are you hurt?”

Marinette turned toward the voice to see Felicity fall from somewhere above to land daintily near her, looking the closest to panicked Marinette had ever seen her.

“I’m fine, don’t worry about me,” Marinette answered, putting on a smile. “You’ve got bigger worries right now.”

Felicity looked down at the bloody cut along Marinette side with a frown. Without a word she crouched down besides her and held a hand out to hover over the wound. A green glow appeared around her hand that swiftly transferred to the gash, which went from bloody dark red to white. Marinette gasped as the pain, previously masked by sheer adrenaline, was replaced by warm tingles, like holding a mug of hot cocoa after being outside on a winter day for too long.

“Since I used my wish to heal myself, I get healing as my special talent,” Felicity explained, as the glowing gash began to shrink. “And before you say ‘Felicity, nooo, don’t worry about me, save your magic for the fight,’ it’s my special talent so it costs me basically nothing to do this.”

Marinette was about to retort that was a _terrible_ (though not inaccurate) imitation of her, but was cut off by a rumble that shook the floor.

From the center of the newly formed stage and with a mighty crack, the Witch emerged.

It didn’t have a body that Marinette could see, but rather dozens of whipping vines originating from a central base, each vine dozens of meters long. The screeching sound from before started up again, not as loud but no less spine chilling.

In her vision periphery Marinette could see Felicity stand and take a few steps forward, putting herself between Marinette and the Witch. She held her hands out to both sides, summoning daggers with the flick of her wrists. Marinette could hear the grin in her voice with her next words.

“Now it’s time for the real fight.”

With that she dashed forward.

The Witches vines whipped forward to slam down on her, but Felicity deftly avoided them all with dancers leaps and pirouettes, arms straight out when she need to spin and slash or turned in a circle when she needed to evade, braids whipping about but never getting in her way. It was like watching a ballet rather than a deadly battle, and Marinette was in awe of her.

Felicity leaped upwards and from vine to vine, slashing away that came close in a whirlwind of blades and getting close and closer to the center. Suddenly all the vines retracted, and like an anemone withdrawing into itself the Witch disappeared into the ground within seconds, leaving Felicity to land on nothing.

Marinette scrambled to her feet, looking about her and on alert of where the Witch could emerge. Even Tikki peeked out of the purse to provide an extra pair of eyes, though not enough to risk being seen by the Magical Girl.

Much later Marinette would wonder whether it was experience, instinct, a faint sound she didn’t even consciously register or just plain luck, but whatever it was it prompted Marinette to look up.

Just in time to see the mass of vines explode downward from among the arching branches above Felicity.

The next few seconds slowed to a crawl

Marinettes hand reaching out fruitlessly toward Felicity, her name on her lips but getting no further than the first syllable. Felicity looking back at her, eyes widening in realization, and beginning to turn to face the Witch, arms up and daggers in a backwards grip, skirt and braids swirling and one leg up for the turn but she was turning

Too

Slow

Marinette could have sworn she heard Felicity’s final gasp before she was impaled to the ground.

Marinette froze in absolute horror as the girl she had come to think as a friend was pierced over and over again by the Witches dozens of razor tipped vines until she was a bloody mess, her Magical Girl outfit disappearing and leaving her corpse dressed in civilian clothes, body flailing from each impact like a grotesque puppet. The only mercy was that Marinette was too far away to see the gory details, but she could clearly see _so much red that nearly replaced all the green_ of her dress.

At last the Witch ceased its attack, withdrawing its vines and curling them inwards. The thick woven branches that made up the floor parted where Felicity lay, letting her body fall through to disappear into the void below.

Distantly she could hear Tikki screaming her name, but it was as if she were miles away or muffled by cotton. Marinette felt disconnected from her own body, as if this was just a dream, a nightmare that’ll she’ll wake up from, because this can’t be real, can it? That couldn’t have been Felicity’s real body, a perforated mess on the ground. She can’t be dead, she just said she would like Ladybugs help, there was so much she had left to do, left to say, none of this could be real, it can’t be real _it can’t be real it can’t be real -_

A hard slap to the face, almost a punch, snapped Marinette out of her shock.

Tikki hovering in front of her face but facing away and towards the Witch, as if trying to use her tiny body to shield her Chosen from the Witch that was slowly, methodically reeling its tentacle vines back up again.

“Marinette, you have to transform NOW!” Tikki ordered. “If you don’t defeat the Witch you will die here and the Ladybug earrings will be lost forever!”

The vines angled toward Marinette, and spread apart like a great maw, the screeching rising higher and higher. The vines sped towards her even as Marinette began to yell -

“Tikki spots - !”

\- only to bounce harmlessly off criss-crossing chains of golden light.

The final word died in Marinettes throat.

A stranger, a girl, a Magical Girl, floated gently down on the other side of the barrier, her back towards Marinette as she stared the Witch down, and all that Marinette could comprehend was white and gold and _light._

 _“_ You’ve got serious nerves to stare down a Witch like that,” the girl said, “but leave this to the professionals, m’kay?”

The girl threw both her arms out sideways and three golden rings appeared on each arm at the wrist, mid forearm, and elbow. She whipped one arm forward and then the other, sending the rings flying towards the Witch that still hung from the ceiling. The Witch attempted to block the attacks, but the disks were too fast or too sharp and only severed more vines. The new Magical Girl advanced, summoning and throwing more rings as she forced the Witch back. The Witch retreated its vines until it disappeared among the arching branches above. The girl kept an eye on where it disappeared, tension radiating with every line in her body. Marinette gasped in realization.

“It’s going to ambush you!” She yelled.

The girls head twitched in her direction, the only acknowledgment she heard before she bent her knees and _leapt_ straight in the air, just as the Witches vines exploded from the ground right below where the girl had been standing a second earlier. The vines reached up to grab the rising Magical Girl, up and up and up, but the girl just kept rising and rising and rising, until at last she flew a small loop de loop and hovered in the air, out of reach of the thrashing angry vines below.

“Just how many of those things do you have?!” She asked in frustration, floating effortless in the air. She held her hands up and summoned gold rings in each hand. “Okay, now I get it - you’re not a plant, you’re a hydra. Cutting off the heads won’t work, you’ll just keep making more.”

She held her arms out and spun around once. The rings in her hands left copies of themselves in their wake, so she was left with an orbit of eight or nine rings floating around her.

“So I’m just going to have to cut out your heart.”

With a grand sweeping gesture of her arms she send the rings flying down at once.

The Witch again tried to defend itself, sacrificing its vines to stop the flying rings from reaching its center. But that was fine, the rings weren’t meant to reach the core - they just had to clear a path for the Magical Girl as she dive-bombed into the center.

Marinette clasped her hand over her mouth.

With a burst of gold light more rings flew up, cutting a path out for the girl as she flew up again, a brown lumpy mess held against her chest. A deafening roar filled the air as the entire Labyrinth rattled, nearly knocking Marinette off her feet. The girl, unaffected as she was in the air, summoned a ring in one hand. She tossed the lump in the air and used the ring to slice it in half as effortlessly as a hot knife through butter.

With a final shriek the vines withered and crumpled away, and the Magical Girl lightly landed on the ground as the Labyrinth faded away, leaving them back in the familiar park.

The battle over, Marinette fell to her knees again, catching herself on her hands and just staring down at the grass. There were so many emotions she should be feeling, but right then all she felt was numb.

A shuffling sound of shoes on grass, and the Magical Girls feet appeared in Marinettes vision. “Hey, what’s wrong with you? Did you get hurt?”

Marinette didn’t respond verbally. She just slowly raised her head and took in the new Magical Girl bit by bit as she did so.

The first thing she saw was a pair of yellow high heel pumps that included a thin strap around the ankle to keep them in place. The legs were covered with white tights, and higher up was a yellow pleated mini-skirt that would have been scandalously short if she didn't have the tights to protect her modesty. It was paired with a sleeveless white shirt, form fitting just enough to be flattering, and included a yellow sailors collar with a white trim. Beneath the collar was a yellow ribbon held in place with a hexagon shaped yellow gem in a gold setting. A large white bow kept the girls blonde hair tied up in a high ponytail.

The girl stared at Marinette with wide eyed shock that equaled Marinettes own.

“Dupain-Cheng?” She said incredulously. “What are _you_ doing here?”

Marinette gaped for a moment before she responded with equal incredulity.

**_“Chloé??”_ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The end of this chapter is basically one of three scenes that spawned this entire fic. It was nice to be able to finally write it, and I'm excited to eventually get to the second and third.
> 
> 10/11/21 Minor edits and corrections for word flow.


	4. Resolve

It’s difficult to articulate what Marinette was feeling the moment she discovered that one of the other Magical Girls in Paris was none other than Chloé Bourgeois herself.

Chloé, the self absorbed brat who always had to be the center of attention, was secretly fighting Witches in the shadows? Chloé, the petty, entitled school bully who couldn’t even be bothered to do her own homework, was willingly risking her life to fight monsters after school? _In what universe??_

This one, apparently.

And yet, Felicity had described her ‘back up’ as being a diva, vain and self-centered who considered herself the center of everything. That…that did fit Chloé to a T. At the time Marinette had just brushed it off as a coincidence, because in a city of over two million people what were the chances that Felicity was talking about _Chloé freaking Bourgeois_??

Chloés shocked expression slowly morphed to anger. She put her fists on her hips and leaned over the still kneeling Marinette as she de-transformed with a flash of sparkling gold light. Rather than her normal outfit, for some reason she was dressed in a dark blue dress and slippers with a lacy white shrug. Her hair fell from the ponytail in waves around her shoulders, with a diamond clip on the left side of her head to hold her hair back.

“Seriously? YOU’RE the girl who’s been following Felicity around?” She asked accusingly. She didn’t bother waiting for a response before throwing her hands up in frustration. “Actually, you know what? I’m not even surprised. It’s just like you to force yourself in the middle of something that’s none of your business.”

Chloé half turned away and held up a hand to stop a non-existent response from Marinette. “Nope, don’t even bother saying anything, I don’t want to hear it. I’m going to have words with Felicity as soon as she gets here, this is utterly ridiculous.”

Marinette felt an icy cold chill spread through her body.

_Dozens of razor tipped vines falling from the sky upon an unprepared girl in green, piercing and shredding over and over until all the green was gone and there was only RED_

“Where were you?”

Chloé glanced back an Marinette from the corner of her eye. “Hm?”

“ _Where were you?_ ” Marinette repeated, slowly standing, rage building.

Chloé raised an eyebrow. “Seriously? You’re angry because you had to be stuck in a Labyrinth for so long? I know Felicity told you not to hang around, it’s your own fault if you got sucked in before one of us got here. And anyway I still saved your life, so you could stand to be a little more grateful.”

_RED RED RED body twitching flailing with every impact RED RED RED SO MUCH RED_

“WHERE WERE YOU?” Marinette yelled, lunging at Chloé.

Chloé stumbled back in shock and barely caught Marinette by the wrists before the shorter girl was on her.

“Felicity needed you!” Marinette screamed, vision blurry from tears of grief and anger. “You were supposed to get here first! And if you just got here in time then Felicity would still be here! It’s your fault she…that she’s…”

The words clogged up in her throat, and Marinette felt all the fight leave her. She slumped forward and let the tears falls with heaving sobs, Chloés grip on her wrists now keeping her standing rather than holding her back.

“Marinette,” Chloé said, slow and frightened. “What are you talking about? What about Felicity?”

Marinette just shook her head, but whether in answer or denial she could not say.

“What happened to Felicity was not Chloés fault,” another voice answered.

Marinette lifted her head to see Kyubey sitting on the lowest branch of the tree they stood under, as still and placid as he always was.

“What are you two talking about?” Chloé demanded angrily, dropping Marinettes wrists and whirling to face the creature. “Felicity isn’t even here yet!”

Kyubey turned his head slightly to look down at Chloé.

“Felicity is dead,” he answered mildly “The Witch killed her.”

Chloé stared back up at him, blank and uncomprehending. “What?”

Marinette glared at Chloé.

“Felicity tried to take the Witch on by herself, but it-” Marinette choked again, and barreled past it, “-and if you had gotten here when you were supposed to and not, not, not having your hair done or whatever the HELL it was that was so much more important, this never would have happened! You - you - !”

Chloé whirled around to angrily face Marinette. “Hold on, YOU don’t get to-!”

“JUST SHUT UP!” Marinette screamed, and Chloé snapped her jaw shut in shock.

“Just shut up! I don’t want to hear it! I don’t want to hear you or see you ever again! YOU SELFISH! HORRIBLE! USELESS **BITCH!** ”

Marinette spun around and ran away as fast as she could. Away from Chloé. Away from Kyubey. Away from the Labyrinth.

Away from Felicity’s final resting place.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Rose had only intended to come early and find a nice quiet picnic spot for her and Juleka, only to be startled by the sounds of Marinette yelling at Chloé. She had been too far away at the time to make out the words, but clearly something had happened to cause Marinette to snap and apparently try to attack Chloé.

In a panic, Rose started to hurry over to break up the fight, but slowed when the fight seemed to drain out of Marinette first. Rose stayed back, hidden by a couple of trees, debating if she should stay just in case it escalated again or respect their privacy and leave.

And then…

“JUST SHUT UP! Just shut up! I don’t want to hear it! I don’t want to hear you or see you ever again! YOU SELFISH! HORRIBLE! USELESS **BITCH** ”

Rose gasped and whipped back around the tree, trembling from head to toe.

Did that just happen? Did that actually just _happen?_ What did Chloé do to prompt a reaction like THAT??

For a few moments Rose just stood there, breathing, feeling her heart thump a hundred miles a minute, until she heard Chloé speaking. She wasn’t yelling, so Rose couldn’t make out the words, but the tone was sharp and angry.

Rose peeked around the tree, expecting to see Marinette. Instead Marinette was gone and Chloé seemed to be having an animated and angry talk with…the tree?

Alright, Chloé clearly needed someone to talk to about whatever just happened, and Roses first inclination was to approach and offer to be that person. She and Chloé weren’t anything close to friends, but Chloé clearly needed someone to talk to right then.

Then again, Chloé might not appreciate Rose’s well intentioned interference. And, Rose had to admit, she was a little bit frightened of what she might learn if she tried to help.

As quietly as she could, Rose retreated before Chloé could notice her.

Roses mind was a whirlwind of confusion and questions. Chloé was often cruel and petty, and Marinette was a favorite victim of hers, but what could have caused Marinette to loose it now? What triggered it? What happened? Should Rose reach out to Marinette? To Chloé? Or should she just stay out of it completely? But what if this escalated into something worse?

The only thing Rose clearly knew right then was the deep, overwhelming desire for comfort and clarity.

She needed to talk to Juleka.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Marinettes entire journey home was a fog, her feet moving purely on auto-pilot once she ran out of steam. She couldn’t even remember what she said to her parents when she got home, what excuse she came up with. Her next clear memory wasn’t until she was back in her room, in her bed, wrapped in her comforter and quietly weeping for the friend she had barely gained before she was lost.

She couldn’t stop seeing it, Felicity’s final moments and the look of shock and instant horror as Felicity realized what was about to happen, how she began to turn to face the threat but turned too late, too slow. Marinette squeezed her eyes tighter shut, but Felicitys face was burned into her mind.

“I am so sorry Marinette,” Tikki said, gently stroking Marinette’s hair. “I’m sorry that you have to bear this burden. I never wanted this for you. I should have done better to warn you of what could happen. I’m sorry I didn’t do a better job protecting you. I’m sorry I failed you.”

A part of Marinette instinctively rose, wanting to assure Tikki she didn’t fail, she did warn Marinette, that she needn’t feel guilty…but Marinette just felt _tired._ She had cried out all her tears on her pillow and now she just felt tired and hollow.

Over and over again the same question kept circling: What if?

What if she had offered Ladybugs help one day earlier?

What if she had paid better attention, seen the attack coming early enough to warn Felicity?

What if she threw caution to the winds and just transformed to join the fight herself?

What if, what if, what if….

What if?

“Tikki,” Marinette asked slowly, “the Miraculous Ladybug cure can fix anything, right?”

The kwami stopped.

“No.”

Marinette jerked her head up to look at Tikki, disbelieving and desperate.

“But it’s always fixed everything before, no matter how big or small! One girl, one life, that should be easy, right?”

Tikki slowly shook her head. “The Miraculous Cure can fix anything related to damage caused by the Miraculous. Felicitys death was not a result of Hawkmoth, akumas, or any other Miraculous, and so the cure won’t work for her. Even if it were possible, it wouldn’t matter - her body was left in the Labyrinth, and when the Labyrinth disappeared it took her body with it. She’s gone from existence, there’s nothing left _to_ restore.”

Marinette pushed herself up a little more, eyes watering again. “So, we can’t even bring her back to her family? She’s just gone forever?”

Felicity nodded sadly. “That is the risk every Magical Girl takes when they choose to make a contract with Kyubey.”

Marinette dropped back onto her pillow, fresh tears falling for Felicity’s parents. She never met them, never even saw a picture, but her heart broke for them. As far as they’ll ever know, their daughter left home one morning and never came back. They’ll probably spend weeks, possibly months waiting, searching, _hoping_ that she’ll come home.

They will never know.

They’ve even been denied the closure of a body to lay to rest.

“It’s not fair,” Marinette whispered. “It’s not fair.”

~*~*~*~*~*~

Outside the Le Grand Paris ballroom, Chloé stood with her back against the wall next to the door, eyes shut tight and jaw clenched and stomach twisting.

Breathe in.

Hold it.

Breathe out.

Breathe in, gather all her emotion - anger, sadness, confusion, _grief_ \- with each inhale.

Hold it.

Breathe out, let the inconvenient emotions exit her body, leaving behind an empty shell.

Chloé ritualistically repeated the action three more times. When she was done, she pushed off the wall and imagined a mask settling over her face.

She smile, and waltzed back into the ballroom.

Mayor Bourgeois was quick to approach her, clearly relieved. “Chloé! There you are! I was starting to wonder where you ran off to!”

“Sorry Daddy,” Chloé chirped, giving her father a kiss on the cheek. “Sabrina needed help with the homework and it took longer that we expected.”

“I’m glad you're taking your schoolwork seriously, but you really should have waited later for that,” André said with a touch of reproach.

It passed quickly as André led his daughter back towards the fairly large crowd milling about the ballroom, his large hand hand between her shoulder blades. They were quickly approached by a pudgy middle aged man in a grey suite and small glasses, and a warm smile.

“Mayor Bourgeois, is this your daughter? How nice that she could join us, I asked my own little girl if she’d like to come but she’s at that stage where she doesn’t like doing anything with her father anymore.”

“The gauntlet many a parent with teenage children must face,” André said sympathetically. “I’m quite fortunate my daughter still admits to being related to me!”

One of the flashcards Chloé had spent the last couple of days reviewing flashed in her minds eye.

_(Doctor Raphael Martin, age 52, married 18 years with four children ages 16, 12, 9 and 5. Chairman of the Toys for Toddlers charity drive and on the board of directors for the Children’s Hope Hospital. Goal is to present Daddy as family oriented with values that align closely to his own, so he’ll be more inclined to become a regular campaign donor in the future.)_

“Daddy, I’m not _that_ mean!” Chloé playfully protested. “Besides, I like coming to these parties with you!”

André smiled, genuinely touched and relieved. Chloé turned her attention to the doctor.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you Dr. Martin,” Chloé said, holding out her hand to shake his. His palms were warm and sweaty, and Chloé was careful to maintain contact _just_ long enough to be polite before pulling her hand back.

She didn’t have to look at her father to know he was paying close attention to what Chloé was saying, committing the name and details to short term memory so he can pretend he knew who Dr. Martin was the entire time.

“I just wanted to say how much I admire your work for the Toys for Toddlers charity,” she continued. “You help to bring so much joy to the ones who need it most, and I’m looking forward to your upcoming toy drive. I understand the Children’s Hope Hospital will be getting a visit from Prince Ali at the same time, that must be so exciting for you!”

Dr. Martin smiled broadly, chuffed by Chloés praise for his pet charity. He looked at André to say "You did a fine job raising this one. It’s young people like her that give me hope for the future.”

Chloé ducked her head and softly smiled with false modestly.

For the next two hours she smiled and charmed and chatted around the room, playing the part of a young woman deeply invested in this charity she'd only heard about two days earlier and pretending she wasn’t a hairsbreadth away from _screaming_.

~*~*~*~*~*~

“Are you done crying?”

The words spoke in utter apathy cut through the fog like a cold knife, prompting Marinette to raise her head from her pillow.

Kyubey sat on her desk, cooly watching her, unblinking and with the ever frozen smile.

“What are YOU doing here?” Tikki demanded, floating up to match Kyubey, her tiny nub hands on her hips. “And you can’t just SAY something like that! Marinette just experienced something traumatic AND lost a friend, she should be allow to take as much time as she needs!”

“I do understand that heavy emotions need time to be processed,” Kyubey replied. “But I’m here because what Marinette said to Chloé needs to be addressed, the sooner the better.”

“Don’t even start with me Kyubey! What Marinette said to Chloé can be addressed _later_ , it doesn’t have to be right now!”

Marinette eyes widened.

“You agree with with him?” She asked, with shock and betrayal. Tikki slowly spun to face her, hesitant but sorrowful.

“Marinette, you just experienced something awful.” Tikki said gently. “I understand why you reacted the way you did to Chloé, I understand that she was an easy target for your anger. But what you said, what you did…I was going to wait a little longer when the hurt wasn’t so fresh, but Kyubey’s right - what happened wasn’t Chloé’s fault, and you were wrong to attack her like that.”

Marinette pushed herself up, anger flaring.

“You’re DEFENDING her?” She asked, barely restraining herself from shouting. “So Chloé had a thing this morning, so what?? She should have dumped that and come to the park as soon as Felicity called her! If she had then Felicity wouldn’t have…she’d still…!”

“Or Chloé may have been killed instead.” Kyubey pointed out calmly. “Would that have been preferable to you?”

Marinette froze for a moment, shaken by the question. _Would she have preferred that?_ She shook it away immediately, terrified of the answer.

“Y-you don’t know that!” Marinette shot back. “Two Magical Girls against one Witch? Of course they’d have been fine!”

“Then then why didn’t you transform into Ladybug?” Kyubey asked.

Marinette froze.

“Don’t you dare turn this around on Marinette!” Tikki defended. “Ladybugs identity must be protected for Marinettes safety, and there was no point in that fight where we had reason to believe Felicity would be overwhelmed. The battle turned far too fast for us to react, and we had no way of anticipating what the Witch would do. Marinette is _not_ to blame.”

Tikki zoomed right into Marinettes face, forcing her to pay attention. “Do you hear me? You. Are not. To blame.”

Tikki held Marinettes gaze for a moment before floating back, expression softening again. “And neither is Chloé. Felicity said she left a voice message, remember? It’s likely Chloé simply didn’t get the message in time.”

“I was with Chloé, and I can confirm that,” Kyubey said. “You saw how dressed up she was. That’s because she was accompanying her father to a charity function this morning. She was required to keep her phone on silent so she could appear fully invested in the event. She only saw she had a message when she broke away to go to the bathroom, and she snuck out immediately after.

“I can also confirm that she had to return to the event so as not to embarrass her father, and be able to act like she was perfectly fine. You had the luxury of going straight home to cry in privacy. Chloé won’t get that chance for another couple of hours at least.”

Marinette slowly shook her head in disbelief.

“How…how can she act like she’s okay? Felicity was, she was like her mentor, right? They were partners. Doesn’t she care at all?”

Kyubey stared at Marinette for a moment, then shifted his attention to Tikki. “Does Marinette usually always try to find the worst in people, or is it just with Chloé?”

“Hey!” Marinette protested, even as Tikki answered “Mostly just Chloé.”

“Tikki!” Marinette exclaimed, feeling slightly betrayed.

“I completely understand your feelings about Chloé,” Tikki said. “Your relationship with her is contentious to say the least, but I’m afraid your personal feelings for Chloé are causing you to judge her unfairly here. I know how much you’re hurting, but you knew Felicity for nine days. Chloé knew her for two months. Do you truly believe your pain is greater than what Chloé’s feeling right now?”

Marinette was silent.

Tikki continued, “Chloé must be feeling this pain too, and she has to keep it locked in her heart because she doesn’t have anyone she can share it with.”

Marinette glanced at Kyubey questioningly.

“I am not human,” he said. “I am not so arrogant as to claim I fully understand human emotions and human grief. I can offer my presence, but I’m not like Tikki - I can’t offer the comfort a human girl needs.”

Tikki muttered something to herself, too quietly for Marinette to hear. _“That would require empathy.”_

Marinette silently got up out of bed, and walked over to the window, crossing her arms. She looked out the window for several long moments, just thinking.

She sniffled, drew in a deep breath, and let out a sigh. “I owe Chloé a huge apology, don’t I?”

“Yes you do,” Tikki said solemnly, coming to rest on Marinettes shoulder. “But it doesn’t have to be right now. If you need more time for yourself, then take it. I’m here for you, for as long as you need me.”

Marinette tilted her head slightly down to nuzzle the kwami, suddenly feeling intensely grateful to have Tikki for her kwami.

Neither of them noticed that Kyubey was already gone.

~*~*~*~*~*~

The long, serpentine Familiar snaked its way desperately across the checkered floor as golden rings fell from the sky above it, narrowly avoiding death with every twist and turn. A curtain of fire came down directly in front and it jerked backwards to retreat, only to be pinned down by the Magical Girl landing on its back.

With a cry of pure rage Chloé summed a sharpened ring in one hand, this time with a curved handle through the center for easy gripping, and hacked away at the Familiar trapped beneath her.

Again and again she brought the weapon down, wild with rage, heedless of how the familiar writhed and screeched, heedless of the way it whipped and tore at her back with its tail in defense, heedless of how her vision blurred with tears. She hacked and ripped and screamed at the creature even as it stilled, even as the Labyrinth around them faded away. It wasn’t until her weapon struck cement and became stuck that she was forced to stop.

Clarity sharply regained, Chloé glanced around her to see she was back in the alley she had followed the familiar down after the charity event finally ended. She gingerly touched her back and winced at the feeling of warm blood, the pain starting to make itself known.

She relaxed in her kneeled position, focusing her magic to heal the damaged flesh, and then dropping the transformation.

In a moment she will wipe away the tears, check her makeup, and fix any imperfections to hide the evidence. In a moment she’ll plaster on a smirk and walk out of here with confidence and grace. In a moment she’ll be the strong, unflappable, exceptional Chloé Bourgeois everyone knew and loved.

In a moment.

She just…needed a moment.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Marinette could not stay in her room all day, as tempting as it was. When Sabine came knocking to gently check on her daughter, Marinette assured she was fine, she just wasn’t feeling very well early, but after some rest she was doing much better.

Sabine was skeptical, but she didn’t push. When Marinette brought her schoolbag down to work on her homework at the dining room table, just to prove how OK she was, Sabine didn’t comment on how this was the first time in months Marinette has done her homework outside her bedroom.

Marinette tried to focus on her physics coursework, get the numbers and equations to work as they were supposed to, complex numbers that had defined rules and operated on pure cold logic, and it was working until she heard the click of a plate.

Sabine had placed a plate of cookies and a glass of milk next to her, offering a warm smile.

“You looked like you were concentrating pretty hard,” she said warmly. “And nothing helps with homework like a bit of a pick-me-up.”

The simple, kind, loving gesture that Marinette once took for granted suddenly seemed so _overwhelming_ that she felt the tears well up again, and rushed to wipe her eyes with one hand before they could fall.

“Marinette?” Sabine said, clearly alarmed. She pulled up a chair and laid a comforting hand on Marinettes shoulder. “Honey, what’s wrong? What happened?”

“It’s nothing Maman,” Marinette said instead, putting on a teary smile. “Nothing bad. I just…I love you so much. You and Papa both, you’re both such great parents and take such good care of me and I love you both _so much,_ and I don’t say it enough.”

Sabine pulled Marinette into a warm hug, stroking her daughters hair.

“Honey, what’s wrong?” She asked. “Did something happen?”

And Marinette wanted so badly to _tell her_ , but she couldn’t. Magical Girls, Witches, Labyrinths, _Felicity_ , Sabine never even had the chance to meet the girl and now Marinette could never tell her that she was gone forever.

“Nothing happened,” she said. “Nothing happened to me. I…think I just realized how lucky I am. I’m here, alive, and I’m not alone. I’m okay. I’m okay.”

Sabine didn’t push further, she just held Marinette for as long as her daughter needed.

That evening, when Marinette shyly asked her parents for a family movie night they were quick to agree. They let Marinette pick the movie, an animated film Marinette used to love as a child but hadn’t watched in years. They let her wrap them all in a comforter and wedge herself between them, something she hadn’t done since she was a small child. Tom kept an arm wrapped around Marinette and Sabine kept stroking her hair, and even as Marinette started to fall asleep she cherished the warmth, the smells, the feeling of being surrounded by love, and locked the memory deep within her heart.

When the movie was over and Marinette excused herself to go to bed, Sabine gently stopped her to give her a soft kiss on the forehead.

“Whatever you are going through, whatever you are facing, know that your father and I will always be here for you.”

Marinette smiled at her, genuine but sad.

“I know Maman.”

~*~*~*~*~*~

The Bourgeois dining room was a grand, sweeping room of rich reds and golds and exquisiteyet tasteful decor, a grand scenic oil painting on the wall opposite of full length windows that revealed the grandeur of Paris itself. A high ceiling complemented the long oak table and the dozen delicately carved chairs along it, each with a beautifully stitched white cushion. It was a room meant for grand meals and grander schemes, where the elite of Paris could gather to plan and discourse and play the polite power games of the powerful.

For tonight, it echoed in silence and bore only a single table setting.

“Monsieur Bourgeois called to say he won’t be able to make it to dinner after all, and he expresses his sincere apologies,” Jean Luc said to Chloé as she paused at the table.

Chloé pressed her lips together, but she couldn’t say she was surprised. She knew her father loved her dearly, she never doubted that for a single moment, but she also knew that his double duty as Mayor and owner of Le Grand Paris hotel kept him very, very busy.

Chloé could count on one hand how often they sat down to dinner together in the past year. When she asked him earlier today if, just this once, he could try to make it tonight, it was the first time she had tried asking in two months.

He hadn’t been able to make it that last time either.

The meal was probably delicious, the steak a perfect medium rare and the vegetables crisp and well seasoned, but it all tasted like ash in her mouth. The click clack of her fork and knife on the plate rang loudly in the cavernous dining room and grated on Chloés ears. When Jean Michael asked Chloé if she would like dessert, she just left the table without responding.

She stayed cold and stoic all the way back to her room.

Once alone, she searched out her phone and pulled up Sabrinas contact, the redheads smiling picture looking up at her. Chloés thumb hovered over the number for a moment before, hesitantly, pressing down.

It rang once, twice, three times.

_“Hi, this is Sabrina, thanks for calling! Sorry I missed your call, just leave a message or shoot me a text and I’ll get right back to you!”_

Chloé hung up and threw the phone across the room and onto her bed in frustration. She gritted her teeth and clenched her fists, but caught what she was doing and forced herself to relax her hands and breath deep through her nose. Cold and stoic again, she grabbed her pajamas and robe and went to the bathroom to complete her nightly routine and prepare for bed.

But as she came out of the bathroom, tying her robe closed, she was struck by intense deja vu. She froze in place, then looked out towards her balcony.

It was empty. Of course it was.

And yet Chloé still found herself moving towards it, stepping out into the night air. She wrapped her arms around herself and looked up at the moon and the stars.

For almost a minute, she just stood there.

“It’s okay to not be okay,” she whispered, her voice breaking. She crumpled and fell to her knees as the tears finally came.

~*~*~*~*~*~

To her credit, Marinette made three attempts to call Chloé on Sunday. The first two times Chloé didn’t answer, and Marinette left a voice message asking if they could talk. It was tempting to leave her apology in a voice message so she wouldn’t have to talk to the girl directly, but something about that struck Marinette as cowardly and insincere, and she couldn’t accept it. The third time, Chloé did answer, but it didn’t go well.

“Chlo-

“SCREW YOU!”

Click.

Marinette looked down at her phone, somewhat resigned. “Well, I can’t say I didn’t deserve that.”

After calling Chloé failed, Marinette seriously considered just going to the Le Grand Paris to force Chloé to listen to her, but Tikki talked her down from that.

“You’re trying to make peace and apologize for what you said,” Tikki pointed out. “Going to her home, uninvited, to try and trap so she HAS to listen to you, is far too confrontational and is more likely to put Chloé on the attack. If she’s not ready to talk, then let her be for now.”

Advice easier heard than followed.

One one hand, this was sure to be an awkward, uncomfortable, and probably humiliating encounter with the most unpleasant person Marinette had ever known, and the sheer dread of it made her want to put it off forever.

On the other hand, this awkward, uncomfortable, and probably humiliating encounter _had_ to be done, and the sooner she could get it over with the sooner she could stop feeling so anxious about it and just move past it.

Needless to say, Marinette didn’t get much rest on Sunday.

Marinette greeted Monday with equal amounts of dread and determination. Today, she WILL find a way to talk to Chloé, and she WILL make Chloé listen to her long enough to hear her out! Whether Chloé accepted her apology or not, well, that was her decision.

Marinette wasn’t doing this because she expected Chloé would forgive her. She was doing it because that’s what you do when you’ve done something wrong - you apologize and try to do better.

“I’m just not sure if it’ll be better or worse to try and do it before school starts,” Marinette said, hand on her chin and she walked to school. “On one hand, it’ll probably be our best chance for privacy and I won’t have to spend all day thinking about it. On the other, I have no idea how Chloé is going to react and it might be hard to just sit in class all day like nothing happened.”

“Do you think Chloé will react badly?” Tikki asked, poking her head out from Marinettes purse. Marinette shrugged and shook her head.

“I have no idea. I’ve known her for years, but we’ve never been in a situation like this. She’s been petty and mean and cruel, but honestly, it was all superficial stuff. I’ve never seen her have to deal with anything this…heavy before. I feel like I’m going into battle blind.”

“No matter what happens, I’m proud of you Marinette,” Tikki assured her. “It takes strength and courage to admit being in the wrong and apologizing. Even more so if it’s to someone who’s hurt you in the past.”

“I appreciate the thought, but you might want to wait until after I’ve actually apologized before you start saying that,” Marinette responded with a smile.

The smile faded as she entered the school courtyard to find what looked like the beginning of a schoolyard brawl, her class gathered in a loose circle around…Alya and Chloé?

“Believe or not, being a wanna-be journalist DOESN’T give you the right to know everybody’s business!” Chloé was saying, arms crossed and glaring at Alya. Alya got up in Chloés face with a fierce glare of her own.

“It does when it involves YOU hurting MY best friend!” She spat back, hands on her hips and chest out. “And let’s face it, Marinette would NEVER act like that unless YOU did something first!”

“Except I didn’t, genius! So how about you get out of my face before I get you expelled?”

“Throwing your weight around to shut me up? Sounds like an admission of guilt to me!”

This was the point Marinette snapped out of her shock at the insane scene she was watching.

“What is going on here?” She demanded as she broke through the circle. The classmates parted to make way, while Alya and Chloé snapped their heads around to look at her.

“Marinette!” Alya cried out, rushing over and grabbing both of her hands. “We all heard about what happened at the park and Chloé refuses to admit what she did to you. What happened girl??”

“A…what?” Marinette sputtered. “The park?”

“I’m sorry!” Rose cried out, looking truly remorseful as Juleka kept a comforting arm around her shoulders. “It’s my fault! I saw you and Chloé at the park and I heard what you said and it sounded like something really, really bad happened and…and…”

Marinette blinked, even more confused. That someone saw them at the park actually wasn’t that big of a surprise. But Rose wasn’t a gossip, she was too sweet and kind for that, so how…?

“Rose and I were talking about it this morning, because Rose wasn’t sure if we should say something or not,” Juleka said, taking over the explanation when Rose proved too upset to continue. “Alix overheard us and decided to ask Sabrina about it. Loudly. From across the courtyard.”

Juleka shot Alix a sharp look. Alix gave a one shoulder shrug, but looked slightly guilty.

“Then Sabrina argued back, also loudly, that Chloé had to be innocent. One thing led to another, and here we are.”

Alya wrapped an arm around Marinettes shoulder and guided her away from the rest of the group.

“Marinette, I know you’re not the type to just blow up at someone without good reason,” Alya said quietly. “Frankly I’m just surprised it took this long for you to snap at Chloé. I’m pretty sure there are saints that have less patience than you. So whatever she did, it must have been pretty awful, and she doesn’t deserve to get away with it. Just what did she _do_ to you?”

Marinette met Alya earnest gaze for a moment, then looked back over her shoulder. The group had mostly dispersed, with Chloé sitting on a bench with arms and legs crossed while wearing a sour expression, Sabrina sitting nervously beside her. Everyone else had mostly retreated to their own groups and activities but keeping half an eye on Chloé/Sabrina and Marinette/Alya, some more obviously than others (Kim, bless his heart, was never good with subtlety).

Adrian, however, didn’t even try to hide his concern. Nino was with him, talking quietly to him, but Adrian kept looking between Chloé and Marinette with a confused, conflicted expression, staring and aborting a move toward one or the other. It struck Marinette as someone who wanted to help, but was lost as to how.

His clear kindness and concern, something that normally filled Marinette with warm affection, now left her feeling ashamed.

“What did Chloé say?” She asked, turning her attention back to Alya.

Alya scowled. “She keeps saying she didn’t do anything, that you blamed her for something she didn’t do and wouldn’t listen to her. Shockingly, no one believes her except Sabrina.”

Marinette glanced back at Chloé. “She hasn’t said _anything_ at all?”

“Nothing concrete. Mostly she just said it wasn’t her fault, but it’s conveniently too private for her to say what it was about so we just have to take her word for it. I’m little surprised she didn’t just make something up, but maybe she figured there wasn’t anything she could make up on the spot that we’d believe AND make her look good.”

Marinette kept looking at Chloé.

“She hasn’t say anything at all,” Marinette repeated, the weight of it settling in her mind. Alya gave her and odd look.

“Marinette?”

All further discussion was cut as the bill rang for class. Chloé was up and marching up the steps ahead of everyone else, head held high and proud.

“We are not done talking about this.” Alya promised Marinette as they followed.

Marinette frown in contemplation, a thought forming with steely resolve.

In the classroom, instead of going to her desk she went straight up to Miss Bustier. She beckoned her forward and whispered a request, to which the teacher nodded in understanding.

When everyone had settled, Miss Bustier clapped her hands to grab their attention.

“Everyone, your attention please. Your Class Representative has informed me that a rumor has recently started up that she wishes to address and dispel here and now.”

Marinette suddenly found her self the focus of an entire classes intense gaze, ranging from merely curious to deeply concerned, particularly Adrien and Alya. Chloé, however, looked wary.

Marinette took a deep breath and met everyones gazes.

“By now you’ve all head of the fight Chloé and I had in the park this past Saturday. Since we were in a public space, we really should have expected it was possible that someone we knew would see us, so I’m not upset about that.”

Rose was still slumped guiltily down in her chair. For now though, that was all the absolution Marinette could spare her.

“Something had…happened, and it left me feeling upset, confused, and angry.” Marinette continued evenly. “I’m not going to say what exactly happened, because it’s a private and personal matter. But if Chloé hadn’t showed up when she did, things would have gotten a whole lot worse.”

A ripple of shock move through the classroom, whispers already staring up again. Marinette steadfastly kept her gaze forward, refusing to close over at Chloe, not ready to see her reaction. 

“Chloé helped me, but instead of being grateful that she came, I was angry that she didn’t come soon enough. But that was wrong of me. What I said to her was cruel, mean, and undeserved. Some of you were ready to coming to my support, and I appreciate the thought, I really do, but you should know that Chloé is not to blame.”

Marinette now focused her attention on Chloé herself. The other girl was staring at her wide eyed, barely breathing. Marinette put as much gravity and weight as she could in her next words, because she needed Chloé to _understand_.

“What happened was not your fault. And I’m sorry that I blamed you.”

Marinette held Chloés gaze for a moment longer, then turned away.

“That is all. Thank you for listening.”

With that, Marinette went to her desk.

Alya, Adrien, and Nino all turned to face her, words of concern already on their lips. Marinette waved them off with a smile and assurance that, really, she’s okay.

Miss Bustier clapped her hands together again. “Alright, I know many of you are probably very curious about what’s going on, but I trust you will all respect Marinette and Chloés privacy. Now it’s time to go over the homework you should have been working on over the weekend.”

It was probably too much to hope that would have been the end of it, but whatever hope Marinette had was dashed when Miss Bustier asked her and Chloé to stay back from lunch. Honestly, if Marinette had more time to think about what she was doing she probably would have realized that if her teacher heard her young, female student talking a mysterious, hurtful, deeply upsetting recent event then she was going to fear the worst.

“I promise, no one approached me in the park or did anything…weird,” Marinette assured her teacher as sincerely as she could. “And if someone did, I would tell an adult about it.”

“And even if Marinette wasn’t willing, I would.” Chloé added, almost annoyed. “My Daddy’s the mayor and my best friends dad is the Chief of Police, I am not afraid to bring in the big guns when it’s called for.”

Marinette had to bite her tongue to keep from pointing out how often Chloé would bring out the big guns even when she _didn’t_ have to.

Miss Bustier didn’t look entirely convinced, but seemed to recognize she wouldn’t get anywhere by continuing to push.

“If you’re sure, I believe you,” she said slowly. “But remember, if there’s anything you want to talk about, even things you feel you can’t talk to your parents about, my door is always open for the both of you.”

The weight Felicity’s memory hung heavy as both girls nodded.

The rest of the day was…awkward. Marinette realized she probably stirred up whole new rumors and speculation of what had happened with her public apology, but honestly that was going to happen the moment the fight became widely known. At least this way the speculation wouldn’t paint Chloé as the villain when she didn’t deserve it (for once).

During study period Adrien left his seat to join Chloé, to her clear surprise and delight. Marinette felt her heart clench at the sight, but forced it down. She knew he and Chloé were childhood friends, and while they weren’t as close as they used to be it was natural Adrien would worry about her.

The two spent most of the period in quiet talk, heads bent low and close to each other. Miss Bustier never said a word about Adrien being out of his seat.

Alya, once again, thoroughly earned her Best Friend title.

“I’m not going to ask what happened, but I’m here for you no matter what,” she told Marinette quietly during the same study period. “When you’re ready to talk, I’ll listen. Even if you never want to talk about it, I’ll be there for you. Okay?” 

There was no way Marinette could verbally respond without starting to cry, so she instead gave Alya a grateful smile.

Adrien caught her as they were leaving the classroom at the end of the day, leading her a little ways away from where everyone else was leaving.

“I just wanted to say, what you did this morning was probably one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen someone do,” he said. “I’m not sure I would have had the courage to do the same thing.”

“Aahhhaha, well, it wasn’t THAT big a, um, of a deal,” Marinette stuttered, and immediately wanted to kick herself because _really?!_

“Yes it was,” Adrien insisted. “And I wanted to thank you for doing that. Chloé will never say it, but I know she appreciates it too. I know she can be…difficult, but she has good qualities. I wish you didn’t have to experience whatever it was that happened, but I’m glad she was there for you when you needed her.”

Marinettes feelings were a bit more mixed after talking to Adrien. On one hand, he thought she did something amazing and brave and it filled her with fuzzy bubbles of happiness. On the other, while brief he talked about Chloé like she was someone worth getting to know. Two days ago Marinette would have dismissed that out of hand. Now, well, she wasn’t sure how she felt about Chloé. Ambivalent, at best.

The feeling was not improved when Marinette exited the courtyard and felt something hit her stomach hard while she was distracted talking to Alya.

“What the crap Chloé?!” Alya explained angrily. The blonde merely scoffed rolled her eyes.

“It’s Marinettes fault for leaving her trash behind,” she said with a toss of her hair. “Nobody wants to see it, so do us a favor and leave that ugly thing at home, alright?”

With that she spun on her heel and walked off with the pride of a queen.

Marinette glared at her retreating back, then looked down at what Chloé had thrown into her stomach. All annoyance flew out when she realized what Chloé had just given back to her.

Her sketchbook.

The one she had brought to the park in search of inspiration.

The one she had left behind.

She slowly bent and picked it up, flipping through the pages. No pages were missing, nothing was vandalized. Everything was perfectly intact.

Huh. Apparently, in her own harsh, sharp way, Chloé was capable of doing something kind.

“I swear, that girl is completely incapable of being kind,” Alya grumbled. “I’d be perfectly happy if she never came to school again.”

Marinettes eyes widened in horror and all of a sudden she couldn’t _breathe_.

“Don’t say that.”

Alya looked at her, confused. “Hm?”

“Don’t EVER say that!” Marientte said louder, whirling to face Alya, angry and desperate. “Don’t ever wish for that! Not for Chloé, not for ANYONE! There’s so many people who’ll miss them that you don’t even know about, so don’t EVER say that again!”

Alya stubbed back a step, confused and concerned. “Whoa, what’s with you? She helped you out one time, you can’t tell me you like her now!”

Marinette backed off, nerves tingling and stomach churning like she was about to be sick.

“I…I have to go home now.”

Marinette turned and ran, ignoring Alya calling her name.

She ran and ran, barely heeding where she was going, only wanting to get away but she couldn’t run way from this.

At last she slowed to a stop, leaning against a wall to catch her breath. Tikki popped out of the purse, concern clear. “Marinette?”

“Chloé fights Witches too,” Marinette said, between heaving gulps of air. “She fights Witches too, and every single one of them is going to try and kill her and she might _lose!_ She’ll go into a Labyrinth and fight and lose and never come out again and, and no one will ever know why she stopped coming to school or why she never came home! Her father loves her so much and he’ll never know what happened to her but I’ll know and _I don’t deserve to be the only one who knows!_ ”

Marinette raised her head to look at Tikki, overwhelmed and scared. “I thought I hated her, but I never wanted this for Chloé. I never wanted her to die! I don’t want her to die!”

Tikki just looked so, incredibly sad. “Of course you don’t want her to die. You are good, and kind, and want to protect people. But Chloé made a Contract with Kyubey, and now she has to accept the responsibility that comes with it. She agreed to fight Witches in exchange for a wish she considered worth fighting for. What was done cannot be undone.”

Marinette shook her head, rubbing away the tears that threatened to fall. “It’s not fair. It’s not right. What wish could possibly be worth dying for?”

Tikki did not answer.

Tikki could not answer.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Chat Noir and Ladybug didn’t have a patrol scheduled for that night, but Ladybug knew that he often went out at night regardless. She asked him, once, why he went out so often. His answer was simple and immediate:

“It’s the most freedom I’ve ever had.”

He had refused to elaborate. Ladybug never pried for more.

The biggest benefit of Chats habit was that it made him relatively easy to contact. If Ladybug needed to give him a call in the evening, at least a third of the time he was already transformed and available to take the call.

Less than thirty minutes after transforming and calling Chat, Ladybug was at the top of the Eiffel Tower and watching Chat make his landing.

“Evening M’lady. Everything alright?” He asked, withdrawing his elongated staff.

And now comes the hard part. A lot had happened, a lot had changed very quickly, and Chat needed to know. Ladybug had put a great deal of thought into how she was going to go about it, how she’d word it, lead up to the worst events to explain everything factually yet respectfully.

But when Ladybug spoke, the words that came out weren’t not what she planned at all.

“Felicity is dead.”

Chat froze, eyes blown wide.

“That was her name,” Ladybug continued, wrapping her arms around herself and lowering her eyes. “The Magical Girl I told you about, her name was Felicity Dionne. I finally asked her if she’d like Ladybugs help and she was so excited by the idea, but I asked her one day too late because the Witch killed her and, and I couldn’t, I was right there and I _couldn’t_ -”

Chat reached out and pulled her into a hug.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I’m so sorry.”

Ladybug returned the hug and buried her face in his shoulder, eyes welling up with tears. For a few minutes they just stood there, holding each other, until Ladybug heaved a great sigh and stepped back. Chat kept his hands on her shoulders, radiating concern.

“I’m sorry,” she said quietly, wiping her eyes. “I just can’t seem to stop crying.”

“Don’t apologize for feeling sad,” Chat said firmly. “You just lost a friend. If you need to cry, cry. If you ever need someone to talk with, I’m always here for you.”

Ladybug gave Chat a grateful smile. “Thank you Chat. I’m okay though, really. Sort of. As much as this hurts now, I’m glad I got to meet Felicity.”

Chat smiled at her, but then his expression turned pensive, one hand on his chin and the other hand supporting his elbow.

“Not to sound insensitive, but with Felicity gone are we just supposed to ignore the Witches? I get that’s not supposed to be in our wheelhouse, but it’s kind of hard to forget about the invisible Eldritch Abominations hunting people in our backyard.”

“That actually brings me to the second thing I need to tell you,” Ladybug said. “I met Felicity’s infamous backup.”

Chat perked up with interest. “Really? What’s she like?”

This was the answer Ladybug had spent the most time planning. As awkward as it as for Marinette’s whole class to hear about what happened at the park, it made her aware that she didn’t know how many other people saw what happened, people she didn’t know.

Granted the odds of Chat having been there or hearing about it were very, very slim, especially since he more than likely didn’t even attend her same school - if he did, she had no doubt they would have recognized each other long ago.

But the odds weren’t zero, and for the sake of protecting their identities she needed to make sure he couldn’t connect what happened between Marinette and Chloé in the park with what happened between Felicity, Ladybug, and Backup Girl.

Which meant NOT mentioning her rather shameful blowout at Chloé. It felt like a lie of omission, which didn’t sit well with her at all, but it was to protect them both.

And, admittedly, she was ever so slightly grateful not to have to share that shame with one of the people she respected most in the world.

“Well, if anything Felicity might have been downplaying how over the top she can be,” Ladybug answered. “Definitely proud, a bit self-centered, and not terribly sympathetic. But I also understand what Felicity meant about her being a very good Magical Girl in spite of all that. Against the Witch she was strong, decisive and clever while making sure I didn’t get hurt. To be honest, I’m still not entirely sure how I feel about her.”

“Fair enough,” Chat said with a nod. He leaned back against the railing and looked at Ladybug with a tilted head. “So what’s your plan now?”

Ladybug raised her head to meet Chats eyes. “She’s facing the same dangers and same risks Felicity did, but now she’s going to be completely on her own. So I’m going to do what I should have done for Felicity.”

Ladybug fisted her hands at her sides.

“I’m going to protect her.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The idea of Chloe helping her father comes from “Queenie” by Engineerd, which was inspired by the scene where Mayor Bourgeois didn’t recognize Jagged Stone and Chloe had to tell how he was (and that he was rich). Her head cannon became “Chloe helps her dad out by not only helping his public image but also knowing all the names of all the people he's supposed to know”
> 
> Not sure how well that works with seasons 2 and 3, but I liked it too much not to use it. 


	5. Evangeline

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whelp, this is the last of my pre-written chapters, and I still haven’t finished chapter 6. My writing has slowed down tremendously since I started working full time again, so if anyone has been looking forward to somewhat weekly updates, I’m sorry. :(
> 
> I didn’t originally plan to include any episode re-writes in this fic, but I realized that, while Chloe and Marinette aren’t friends yet, their dynamic has already shifted too much for the Princess Fragrance episode to play out the same way it did in canon and I couldn’t ignore that. I was still able to accomplish everything I wanted, so I’m still on track with my outline. It actually helped to provide a convenient vehicle for some developments.

Today was going to be a Bad Day.

An Akuma in the middle of the school day? Definitely annoying, but she’d learn to get used to it and had come to a slightly nihilistic acceptance that her attendance record for the year was going to be shot. Honestly she was amazed it hadn't been enough to disqualify her as Class Representative.

No, what made this a Bad Day was poor Tikki getting sick, Marinette being unable to get her friend help right away because missing more school would invite too many questions, forcing her poor little friend to stay miserable for a few hours longer until school let out, was in such a rush to get back to class she tripped and fell flat on her face in front of everyone and was still spectacularly late, and tripped on someones school bag going down the stairs because she was distracted talking to Tikki hiding in her purse (then again, that last fall ended with her getting caught and held in Adriens arms, so silver lining).

But all that paled in comparison to the final straw when, upon picking up her fallen purse, she discovered that _she had lost Tikki!_

Naturally Marinette launched into a frantic search for her little friend while trying not to draw too much attention from the students still milling around. Being half aware of her surroundings was enough for her to be somewhat aware of Rose and Chloé talking as the limo pulled up to take Chloé home. Marinette didn’t catch what they were talking about, but it was hard to miss Chloé cruelly tearing up Roses letter while laughing in her face.

Terrible as it was, at least Chloés gesture was dramatic enough to catch Marinettes full attention, which meant she was looking at the just the right time to see Tikki in Chloé’s hand through the open limo window as the rich girl rode past.

“Chloé!” Marinette yelled desperately, running after the limo. “Wait up! That’s my-my-!”

Chloé stuck her head out the window to look back at Marinette, surprised and annoyed. “Seriously? Fine, you can come by the hotel and grab it later!”

“Please! Just stop the limo and give…her…back.”

Marinette slowed to a stop and watched with disbelief as the limo sped away. She raised her fists in a silent scream of frustration.

So distracted was Marinette by the inadvertent abduction of her friend she forgot about poor Rose behind her, kneeling on the ground and tearfully holding the tattered remains of her heartfelt letter.

~*~*~*~*~*~

On the rooftop of the building opposite of the school, a scowling girl leaned down with fists on her hips as she watched Marinette running down the street. She had long black hair left mostly free to flutter in the breeze, half held back by a red hair clip, bangs covering her forehead, and clear blue eyes. She wore a red sweater, skinny white jeans, and silver slippers. She would not have been as tall as Chloé, but she still would have stood slighter taller than Marinette.

“Seriously? That’s the girl Felicity took under her wing?” She asked skeptically. “She looks like she would snap in half in a stiff breeze.”

“The same could be said for most of the girls who make Contracts with me, so that's not really saying much.” Kyubey replied, sitting a short ways away.

“Hmph. So how much trouble is she going to be when she finally makes her wish?”

“Marinette has the potential to become an amazingly powerful Magical Girl. However, she's not going to be making a Contract with me anytime soon.”

“Let me guess, she got scared off by the Witches.”

“Her reasons are her own.”

Marinette had disappeared from sight by then. Satisfied, the girl spun around and walked away from the edge, her hair fluttering behind her like a cape.

“I think I’d like very much to meet her anyway,” she said with a smirk.

Kyubey watched her leave, not saying a word.

~*~*~*~*~*~

When Chloé answered the knock at her door, she was greeted by a glaring Marinette, arms crossed and shoulders hitched up and wearing a fierce scowl.

“Sheesh, what bug crawled up your butt?” Chloé asked, rolling her eyes. She walked away and left the door open for Marinette to follow.

“Having to run all the way from school to the hotel because SOMEONE couldn’t be bothered to stop their limo for two seconds to give back something that belongs to me tends to put me in a bad mood,” Marinette growled, stomping after her. “I’m funny that way.”

“I’m on a strict schedule and my time’s more important than yours,” Chloé said flippantly, not even bothering to turn around as she searched through per purse. Marinette stretched out her arms and made strangling motions at Chloé.

She quickly pulled her arms back when Chloé turned around again, and held them up to catch Tikki as the other girl tossed her through the air.

“There. You got your toy back. Happy now?”

Marinette couldn’t even disguise her sheer relief at getting Tikki back, and the kwami dropped her frozen smile in exchange for a soft, sincere one for Marinette.

“What are you, five?” Chloé scoffed. “I can’t believe you’re bringing a toy to school.”

Marinette scowled and put Tikki in her purse. “That’s none of your business.”

Chloé shrugged. “Whatever, I don’t really care. We’re out of time anyway, Prince Ali’s photo-op has already started.”

Marinette only had a brief moment wonder ‘we?’ before Chloé was strutting past and grabbing Marinette by the elbow, pulling her along in her wake.

“You’re not allowed to talk to Prince Ali and you’re not allowed to be in any pictures with him,” Chloé instructed briskly. “If Ali approaches you first, that’s fine, but his chaperone is pretty strict so don’t get your hopes up.”

“Wait, what??” Marinette sputtered out as they reached the elevator. “What are you talking about?”

Chloé raised an eyebrow at Marinette, looking at her as if _she_ was the one not making sense. “Prince Ali of Achu? He’s staying here while he’s in Paris and he’s going a toy drive at the children’s hospital later, after the photo-op. You’re not coming with us for that, I’m already doing you a huge favor letting you be in the same room as him right now.”

“Favor?!” Marinette exclaimed even as the elevator doors opened and Chloé swept her inside.

“I know, my generosity surprises even me sometimes!” Chloé responded with a self-satisfied smile, pressing the button for the ballroom floor. Holding the back of her free hand under her chin she laughingly added, “And charming too! Once Ali and I meet, he’ll be so smitten with me he’ll forget all about those those children! Ahahaha!”

“Chloé!” Marinette exclaimed in horror. The blonde looked over at Marinette and rolled her eyes.

“Don’t be so sensitive, we’re still going to go obviously, it’s WAY too big a PR event for him to miss.”

“What, you don’t think Ali’s going because he actually cares about sick children?” Marinette asked scathingly. The tone seemed to go completely over Chloé’s head.

“Oh sure, Ali might actually care,” she answered breezily. “But that doesn’t mean his family isn’t benefiting from the good publicity. They only let him come because they're getting something out of it.”

“Ali's parents aren’t USING him!” Marinette protested, horrified by the thought. “Parents are supposed to take care of their children, not, not use them!”

Chloé gave Marinette a flat, unimpressed look. “Wow. Your naiveté is actually hurting my brain.”

Marinette started to protest, but Chloé didn’t give her the chance.

“If your parents are rich and powerful, they ARE going to use you to their benefit if they can,” Chloé continued, and started ticking off her fingers.

“Ali likes helping little kids, so his parents let him be the face of those kinds of charities because it makes the family as a whole looks extra good. I help Daddy look good to campaign donors and help him keep track of everyone he’s supposed to know. Even Adrien! He doesn’t really like modeling all that much, but he’s really good at it so Gabriel uses him as branding for his clothing line.

“If our parents weren’t willing to use any advantage they could to their benefit, they wouldn’t BE the rich and powerful to begin with. The best parents are the ones who make sure they’re not making their kids do anything they’re super uncomfortable with. The happiest kids are the ones who learn to find empowerment in it.”

Marinette stared at Chloé, speechless.

The elevator doors _dinged_ open and Chloé pulled Marinette along into the ballroom. A half circle of photographers surrounded the Mayor, Nadja Chamack and who must have been Prince Ali and his Chaperone.

“You can stand anywhere you want to get a good view, as long as you don’t bother any of the photographers,” Chloé instructed. “If anybody asks, you’re here as my guest.”

With that, Chloé sauntered off to approach her father from behind. Marinette stayed where she was, suddenly feeling a bit like she had just been picked up and dropped off by a tornado.

“How…did she get me here? Why did I LET her??” She asked. Tikki popped her head out of her purse.

“Chloé is quite the force of nature, isn’t she?” Tikki commented weakly, before giving a tiny sneeze.

That was enough to shake Marinette back to her senses. She lifted the purse so she could talk to Tikki more quietly.

“I’m so sorry about all this,” she said earnestly. “I shouldn’t have let Chloé drag me here, I’ll get you to a doctor right now.”

Tikki rapidly shook her head. “No, we should stay at least a little longer. As forceful as she was, I think Chloé really is trying to do something nice for you. If you leave now, it’ll be like throwing a gift back in her face. I think she’s trying to make an effort, the least we can do is meet her halfway.”

“If Chloé is trying to be a nicer person, she should have invited Rose to this instead of me,” Marinette muttered. She still started edging around the photographers to stand by the window and get a better view of Chloé trying to charm the oblivious prince.

“Chloé is a girl of many contradictions.” Tikki said simply, before ducking down to hide in the purse.

Remember how this had already been officially declared a Bad Day? Turns out it wasn’t over.

Even as Chloé wailed about suddenly smelling intensely like rotten fish, a cascading fog of magenta smoke had Marinette scrambling back even as it overwhelmed the photographers. As onethey turned and bowed to greet ‘Princess Fragrance,’ a green skinned, black clothed young girl with pink hair.

Huh. Marinette never imagined an Akumitized Rose before now, but she would have guessed it’d involve a lot less black and a lot more pink and sparkles.

“I’m Princess Fragrance and I’ve come just for you!” The girl declared as she approached the befuddled Prince Ali. Confusion swiftly turned to alarm as she leveled her perfume gun at his face. “In just a spritz, you’ll be MY prince!”

In that instant, Marinette kicked herself for putting herself so close to Prince Ali and Chloé’s group. It saved her from being mind-controlled, but it also meant she was too close to Princess Fragrances line of sight to slip away and create a distraction.

In that same instant, Chloé acted.

She rushed forward and knocked the gun upward with her hand, and while it wasn’t strong enough to break Princess Fragrances grip it did surprise her long enough to leave her open to Chloé’s followup: a roundhouse kick to her chest, sending her flying backwards.

The shock in the room was palpable.

Chloé snatched Ali's hand and pulled him along, his chaperone and the mayor quickly on their heels. Without missing a step Chloé also grabbed Marinette's hand as she passed, pulling the two teens behind her as they escaped the ballroom. Chloé kept firm hold of both hands as the group of three teens and two adults fled down a flight of stairs and into a room that André assured them would keep them safe with its reinforced door.

“Such chaos!” Ali's chaperone lamented. “How is one supposed to stick to a schedule around here?”

“You get used to it,” Marinette commented, reminded of her increasingly abysmal attendance record.

Ali's excitement, however, would not be curbed.

“That was AMAZING!” He gushed at Chloé, even as he kept holding his nose. “Where did you learn to do that?”

Chloé’s eyes widened briefly before she loudly laughed it off. “Oh that? I’m naturally awesome so it just came to me! I’ve built up a lot of leg strength after eight years of ballet after all!”

Chloé went into the Developpe position, bending and straightening her raised led a couple of times to prove the point.

Ali was down right starry eyed, but Marinette only felt a wave of irritation.

“And if you had just been nice to Rose we wouldn’t even be in this situation!” Marinette shot at her. It wasn’t as effective as she would have liked since she was also holding her nose (the smell was REALLY bad, okay??), but it was still enough to have Chloé whipping around to look at her furiously.

“Get off your high horse Dupain-Cheng. Rose should have known better than to ask me to deliver her fan letter at all, it’s not my fault she took it so personally.”

“It was just a LETTER!” Marinette argued. “Would it have killed you to do something nice for her?”

“Excuse me,” Ali's chaperone cut it. “You should know that his highness receives hundreds of letters from admirers every month and they all must go a rigorous screening before any are allowed to be presented to him. You’d be surprised how few make it through.

“If Ms. Bourgeois had decided to hand deliver a letter and bypass all the security and screening, I would have removed the letter myself and probably black listed Le Grand Paris for all future visits due that massive breach in protocol.”

Chloé wildly waved a hand in the chaperone's direction as if to say ‘see!’ Ali simply looked resigned to that reality of his life.

“Okay, so maybe you couldn’t deliver a letter for Rose after all,” Marinette conceded. “That doesn’t mean it was okay to rip it up and laugh in her face!”

“You did what?!” Ali exclaimed in horror, and even the chaperone looked a little shocked.

Chloé scowled, but didn’t back down.

“In case you haven’t noticed, she’s a lot more interested in getting her ‘prince’ than getting her revenge on me!” Chloé shot back. “Frankly, if she’s this emotionally invested in a celebrity crush she’s better off getting Akumitized now and getting those feelings out before she’s targeted by far something far more dangerous!”

Marinette stopped cold.

“What?”

A cry of alarm from André alerted the group to the cloud of magenta perfume seeping through the door cracks, ending all further discussion.

“Is there another way out of there?” The chaperone asked as everyone backed away from the encroaching cloud.

“No, this was supposed to be a safe room to bunker down in!” André answered despairingly.

Marinette looked around the room, desperate for anything they could use to escape.

“Chloé! I need your help with these!”

To her credit the heiress didn’t hesitate, helping Marinette pull down the thick heavy curtains with sharp yanks.

Less than thirty seconds later André (holding his breath) threw the door open. Princess Fragrance was given no time to react before Marinette and Chloé were ambushing her and covering her with the heavy curtain, pushing her down to the floor. The flapping of the heavy fabric also served to blow away the perfume, clearing an escape path. Ali, his chaperone, and André made their exit while Marinette and Chloé held down the fiercely struggling and screaming Princess Fragrance.

“MY PRINCE!” She wailed. “How DARE you stand between me and my sweet Prince Ali!”

“Oh SHUT UP!” Chloé snapped, raising a fist and punching Princess Fragrance in the head. The possessed girl fell back under the fabrics with a groan.

The girls seized the opportunity to get up and run after the rest of the group, but Princess Fragrance was quick to recover and pursue. André had stayed back to keep the stairwell door open for them, but while his selfless act saved the girls he wasn’t able to get away himself.

“He’s under a spell! Shut the door!” Chloé commanded her butler once they were back in the ballroom.

“But he’s your father.” The chaperone protested.

“Doesn’t matter!” Chloé said sharply. “Shut it now!”

As harsh as it sounded, Marinette found herself respecting that Chloé wasn’t letting sentimentality put the rest of the group in danger. What Marinette would have once condemned as heartlessness, she was starting to appreciate as pragmatism.

Her butler certainly didn’t have any qualms about shoving his boss out with a broom and slamming the door in his face. Unfortunately the cloud of perfume leaking from the elevator killed any hopes they’d bought any time.

The doors opened to reveal Princess Fragrance, strutting in with all the graceful confidence of the royal she pretended to be.

“Come into my arms, my sweet prince.” She said sweetly, approaching the retreating boy with open arms. Chloé and Marinette exchanged glances, silently asking how they were going to escape this.

“Pee yew! Can we get some fresh air in here?”

Marinette felt her heart leap.

“Chat Noir!” She exclaimed joyfully, relief flooding her to see her partner sitting casually on the open window ledge.

“Theeee one and only!” Chat replied, tossing a quick wink her way before leaping to attack Princess Fragrance head on.

The Akumas ability to brainwash bystanders into her minions was a dangerous threat, but one on one she frankly wasn’t much of a match for the quick and agile Chat Noir. Within a few seconds he sent her flying into the adjacent kitchen, and considering how long she was stunned the last time she took a hit to the stomach she was likely down for a bit.

Chat took the opportunity to turn his staff into an escape pole, gesturing the rest of the group over.

“Emergency evacuation, everybody down!” He commanded.

“It’s much too dangerous for the prince!” Ali's chaperone protested.

“More dangerous than staying here?” Marinette countered. But Chat was already finding a compromise.

“You’re right. Safety first!” He declared cheerfully, plopping a metal bowl on Ali’s head as a makeshift helmet. Ali seemed rather delighted by it, and his chaperone…well, Marinette wasn’t sure if she thought it was adequate protection or if she just realized how ridiculous she sounded, but either way she didn’t protest further.

Chat went down first, to keep the pole steady for everyone else. Chloé went next, then Marinette, Ali, and his chaperone last. By a stroke of luck, the chaperones car was parked nearby.

“Everybody in!” She instructed, waving everyone over. Marinette started to follow, but stopped as she was struck by the obvious solution.

“Actually, I’m just going to go the other way,” she declared, pointed a thumb over her shoulder. Four pairs of eyes whirled at her in disbelief.

“Seriously? This better not be some stupid attempt to sacrifice yourself for the group or whatever,” Chloé said with clear annoyance.

“Kind of the opposite actually,” Marinette admitted. “You're right, Ali is the only one Princess Fragrance is really interested in. The further away I am from him, the safer I’ll be. No offense, your highness.”

“None taken!” Ali replied cheerfully.

Chloé appraised Marinette for a moment longer before saying “Fine. But if you get mind-controlled, don’t come crying to me.”

With those parting words Chloé turned away and slid into the the back seat of the car. Even as it drove off Marinette was already running off in the opposite direction. But she stopped when seconds later Princess Fragrance came flying out the window after them, using her perfume gun like a rocket launcher.

“Marinette,” Tikki cried weakly. The girl immediately yet gingerly pulled the little kwami out of her purse, holding her with both hands.

“You have to…transform and help them,” Tikki said. “I’ll be okay.”

“No Tikki, we need to get you better first,” Marinette said. “I have to trust that Chat and Chloé can keep Ali safe for a little while longer. Now, where can we find that healer you mentioned?”

~*~*~*~*~*~

Today seemed to be day of defying expectations Marinette didn’t know she had. First was Rose turning out to be a much darker (literally) Akuma than she would have expected, next was a kwami healing session that apparently involved a lot of gong ringing. For some reason.

At least the healer didn’t ask too many questions, other than asking what kind of ‘pet’ Marinette was bringing that needed help. Actually Marinette had to answer that question twice, and frankly she wasn’t entirely sure she even gave the same answer both times

At least she said Tikki was some kind of cat both times. Maybe. Probably? Hopefully.

Well, whatever the mysterious old Chinese man did, at least it was quick and worked perfectly - Tikki was back to full health in less than ten minutes, to both their delights.

Restored to full strength, they transformed so Ladybug could rush to find the car with Ali, Chloé and Chat.

She found the car, but that was all she found.

“Oh no,” Ladybug said as she landed by the abandoned vehicle. There was a chance the group managed to escape, but it didn’t seem likely they would leave their best form of escape.

Ladybug searched the interior of the car, hoping for a hint or a clue of some kind to tell her where -

Oh.

In the front passenger seat, words had been messily carved into the floor, as if the writer had been in a desperate rush.

_Ponts des Arts_

“Thank you Chat,” Ladybug whispered. With a toss of her yo-yo she was swinging away.

~*~*~*~*~*~

_Two Miraculous battles and a Lucky Charm later._

Chloé slowly shook her head in disbelief, watching as Rose and Ali ran off hand in hand.

“That should not have worked. That SHOULD NOT have worked! Who spends a whole day getting chased around by crazy and thinks ‘yeah, that’s the kind of girl I want to hang out with even more!’? Didn’t either of them learn ANYTHING from today?”

“Blame Hawkmoth for blowing everything out of proportion,” Ladybug said, landing lightly behind the blonde. Her earring beeped to warn her she had four minutes left, but she couldn’t let this opportunity pass.

Chloé yelped and flinched away, only to gasp with sheer delight and excitedly flutter around Ladybug like an eager child. “Ladybug! Omigosh you’re still here and I get to talk to you! This is so awesome! Eeeeeh!”

The resemblance of Chloé’s reaction to Ladybug with Rose’s to Ali once she regained her senses wasn’t lost on Ladybug. But whereas with the Lady Wifi situation she had been annoyed, now she was faintly amused.

“I don’t have much time, but I heard a little about what you did to keep Prince Ali safe,” Ladybug said. “I wanted to tell you how impressed I was. It sounds like you kept a cool head and acted bravely. Not many people can do that in a crisis.”

Chloé looked about ready to burst with sheer joy.

“Ahahaha, well, I AM the exceptional Chloé Bourgeois!” She declared, lifting her head and theatrically holding the back of her hand under her chin. “It was only a matter of time before you had a chance to see my true talents!”

Ladybug couldn’t deny she wasn’t a little disappointed that Chloé didn’t mention any help from ‘Marinette’, but she couldn’t say she didn’t expect it either. That wasn’t why she was here anyway.

“I’m sure you’re a girl of many talents. We seem to have more in common than I thought, and I’d love to hear more about you.”

If Chloé looked ready to burst before, now she looked ready to faint.

“And I’m sure someone like you can tell me a lot about Paris, things I should know about. Particularly dangerous things that most people might not even know exist.” Ladybug pressed, smiling and leaning in a little closer. Chloé was absolutely beaming.

“Well of course! Being the mayors daughter, I can learn about all kinds of things!” Chloé boasted. “I’d be more than happy to help with anything I learn! I’m going to need some way to call or message you though, what’d you have in mind?”

Ladybugs eyebrow twitched, but she kept the wide smile plastered on.

“Don't worry about that.” She said quickly. “For now I just want to know if there’s anything you can think of right now that you’d like to tell me. Something I might need to know as the Protector of Paris?”

Chloé just stared back blankly.

Beep. Three minutes left.

Ladybug leaned in a little closer, smiled a little wider, her cheeks beginning to ache from effort. “Even if it’s something you think sounds crazy, or you don’t think I’ll believe, I’m here if you want tell me anything at all. _Anything at all._ ”

Ladybug held Chloé gaze for a long, pregnant moment. The other girl met her gaze, wide eyed and starting to look a little freaked out.

“Um. Thanks for asking, but there’s nothing I can think of right now. But I’ll let you know if anything comes up.”

Chloé’s eyes flicked over to Ladybugs earrings. “And aren’t you almost out of time anyway?”

It took Ladybug a moment to respond in the face of sheer disbelief of what she was hearing. Or rather, _not_ hearing.

“Right. Good talk.” She said stiffly, smile still frozen.

There really wasn’t any way to gracefully leave such an awkward conversation, so Ladybug simply leapt off the roof and swung away.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Thirty minutes later Ladybug was recharged and swinging through the city, landing on a high rooftop where a pacing Chat Noir waited for her.

“Are you alright?” He asked desperately as soon as Ladybug landed, putting his hands on her shoulders. “The last thing I remember is being in the car and Princess Fragrance filling it with her perfume and the next thing I know I'm soaking wet by the Seine and I had no idea where anyone was and _please tell me I didn't hurt you_!”

Ladybugs heart broke a little for her poor kitty. She couldn't imagine how upsetting it would be to just loose control of yourself and have no memory of what you did.

“Chat, it's okay, _I’m_ okay," she assured him, putting her own hands on his shoulders in turn. “Princess Fragrance could make people obey her commands, but I don’t think she could control how much effort they’d use - she ordered you to take my miraculous, but you frankly weren’t trying that hard.

“I know what you're capable of. How strong you are, how fast you are, how clever you are. But in our fight? All I had to do was step to the side and trip you over with my foot! There’s no way I could have won that easily unless you WANTED to lose.”

Chat Noir didn't look convinced. “I still attacked you, I still could have hurt you. What if I used my Cataclysm against you?”

Ladybug hesitated.

“Oh my God I DID!”

Ladybug grabbed Chats hands off her shoulders and held them between her own hands.

“And there’s not a doubt in my mind that it was only because something inside you wanted to use it up, wanted to waste it as fast as possible! And I was still able to use it to help stop Princess Fragrance from taking over all of Paris!”

Ladybug placed a hand on Chats cheek. “So don’t blame yourself, okay? I don’t.”

Chat met her eyes for a long moment, before closing his eyes and nuzzling her hand slightly.

“Alright. I’ll…try not to.”

That was as good as she was going to get for now. As ridiculous as Chat could be, she knew he took her safety seriously. Too seriously sometimes.

Ladybug pulled her hands back to cross her arms, growing thoughtful.

“It wasn’t just you either. Backup Girl got sprayed and she was holding back too.”

Chat perked up. “She was at the hotel? What was she doing there?”

Ladybug didn’t like the idea of misleading her partner, but if Chloé wasn’t willing to tell Ladybug who she was, she definitely wouldn’t appreciate having it shared with Chat Noir without her consent.

“Princess Fragrance sprayed a lot of people, and not just at the hotel,” Ladybug reminded him. “Backup Girl was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. She was ordered to stop me, but she didn’t use any of her Magical Girl abilities, not even her latent ones for speed or strength. All it took was one hit and she was done.”

The fact that Chloé went down after smacking her head against a light post had severely confused Ladybug at the time, but it was her first clue that Princess Fragrances control might not have been as absolute as it appeared, and played a role in how she approached her fight with Chat right after.

“I managed to talk to her after I purified the Akuma,” Ladybug continued. “She was super excited, so I thought she’d jump at the chance to tell me, to tell Ladybug, that she was a Magical Girl.”

“I take it she didn’t?”

Ladybug shook her head, frustrated. “I get that’s not the kind of thing you drop in the middle of a conversation, but I tried to make it easy for! And she still wouldn’t say ANYTHING!”

Ladybug threw her hands up on the last word, to Chats clear amusement.

“I really don’t get it. Felicity was ready to jump at the chance to tell Ladybug everything. I honestly thought her Backup would too, so why didn’t she?”

“Beats me. I’d tell you all my secrets if I could,” Chat said, leaning in just a little with a flirty grin.Ladybug pushed him back with one finger on the tip of his nose.

“Seriously though, she and Felicity are different people, it’s not really fair to keep comparing them.” Chat pointed out. “Maybe Backup didn’t actually think you’d believe her. Maybe she’s never thought about and it just didn't occur to her. Maybe she just doesn’t like the idea of asking help. Whatever the reason, if she doesn’t want to tell you then does it really matter why?”

“It matters if it’s based on a wrong assumption,” Ladybug pointed out. “Maybe civilian me can try to find out.”

“And if she honestly, truly, sincerely doesn't want Ladybugs help?”Chat asked.

Ladybug was quiet for a long moment.

“I will never stop looking for ways I can help protect her,” she said slowly. “But I will respect that she doesn’t want Ladybugs direct assistance. I would just need to find a different solution.”

Chat nodded approvingly. A thought seemed to occur to him, because he then turned a little nervous.

“And uh…we should probably stop calling her the Backup or Backup Girl,” he said. “I mean, she's not really anyones backup anymore, is she?”

Ladybug cringed slightly. “Right. So, she’s just the Magical Girl from now on, I guess.”

~*~*~*~*~*~

Ladybug took a gamble that Chloé would opt to walk home for a chance to patrol, a gamble that paid off when she swung by and spotted the blonde walking down the street with her yellow Soul Gem in hand, invisible to the other pedestrians but glowing brightly in Ladybugs eyes.

She discreetly landed a few streets ahead so she could meet Chloé walking in the opposite direction.

“Chloé! There you are!” Marinette exclaimed, running up to meet her. Chloé looked up from her gem, clearly startled and then frowned she saw Marinette.

Marinette has a loosely planned script of what she’s say, but it was chucked out the window when Chloé grabbed her roughly by the upper arm and pulled her down a narrow side-street.

“Ow! Chloé! What are you doing?”

Rather than answer, once they were alone Chloé swung her around until her back hit the wall. Marinette was given no time to recover before Chloé was boxing her with, arms on both sides of her head as she leaned in, getting in Marinettes face.

“What did you tell Ladybug?”

Marinette gaped at Chloé. “What?”

“I just had a really weird conversation with Ladybug,” Chloé said, leaning closer into Marinettes personal space. “She was saying she heard about how well I did today, and how I could tell her _anything at all_ , even the weird unbelievable things. There are exactly four people she could have heard about me from, and three of them wouldn’t have been able to tell her anything until after the Akuma was defeated, but she already knew something by them. And of those four, only ONE of them would have been able to tell her about something particularly ‘unbelievable’ about me.”

Chloés voice lowered, quiet and threatening.

“So I’m going to ask you again, Dupain-Cheng. What. Did. You. Tell. Her?”

Marinette had faced villains and monsters, thieves and disasters, and thought she had faced everything that could scare her.

But none of it prepared her for being the center of Chloé’s cold, focused _fury_ , and it frightened her in a way that nothing else ever had.

And yet, it also gave her an odd sense of deja vú.

“Nothing!” Marinette exclaimed. “I mean, she knows about how you fought off Princess Fragrance to protect Ali a couple of times, but that’s it! I swear!”

Chloés eyes narrowed.

“And you didn’t tell her anything about me being a Magical Girl, or that Witches exist, or anything like that?”

Marinette rapidly shook her head. “I swear I didn’t! I, I don’t know why she was asking you that, I didn’t tell her anything!”

Chloé stood over her for a moment longer before finally stepping back, releasing Marinette. “Alright. I believe you.”

Marinette took in a deep breath, feeling a bit like like a person rescued from drowning.

“…Would it be so bad if she knew though?” Marinette asked quietly. Chloé gave her a sharp look.

_“Yes.”_

That was all the answer she gave before she stormed off. Marinette watched her go, not moving away from the wall. Once Chloé was gone, Tikki popped out of the purse.

“Are you alright? Did she hurt you?”

Marinette shook her head, suddenly feeling very weary.

“No, I’m fine, just a little shaken,” she said, pushing off from the wall. “I still don’t know why Chloé doesn’t want Ladybugs help, but it’s obviously really important to her. I’d like to try and find out later, but right now I just want to go home and crawl into bed.”

“It’s barely 6:30,” Tikki pointed out with amusement.

“It’s been a **very** long day.” Marinette intoned. Tikki giggled, and settled back into the purse.

Marinette headed back toward the main street where Chloé had gone. A pedestrian started to come down the side-street. Marinette stepped to the side to let them pass, but they seemed to have had the same idea and stepped in the same direction

“Sorry, excuse me,” Marinette muttered, stepping to the other side.

Only for the pedestrian to step to the side and block her again.

“Marinette?”

She jerked back in surprise, finally paying attention to the person in front of her.

It was a girl about her age, a little taller but not as tall as Chloe, with long black hair, bangs, and blue eyes. Her hair was half tied back, and she wore a red sweater with skinny white jeans and silver slippers. She had her hands behind the back and her head tilted slightly to the side as she gifted Marinette a bring, sunny smile that somehow still sent a chill down her spine.

“Marinette Dupain-Cheng?” She asked, taking a step forward. Marinette took matching step back.

“How do you know my name?” She asked, hand hovering protectively over her purse. The girl beamed at her.

“We have a mutual friend.”

Marinette was given no time to wonder before the girl spun around and hit Marinette in the chest with a roundhouse kick.

She was sent flying back down the empty side-street, a good fifteen feet before she hit the ground and rolled a few times. She gasped for air, clutching at her chest but still kept her eyes on the mystery girl as she approached, sauntering towards her as if she were on a morning walk.

“Nothing personal, you understand,” she said. “I’d just rather eliminate the competition early if I can.”

Red glittering light burst at her feet and traveled up her body, transforming her clothes as it passed over her.

Her slippers became white lace up boots with red laces, her white jeans became red tights that disappeared under a white puffed out skirt with little red bows spaced in a circle around the middle, with a split in the center that revealed red layered petticoats. Her red sweater became a white corset layered over the white dress that went up to a high collar, with long bell sleeves that had red lace trimmed around the edges. Her red hair clip was replaced by an oversized white bow with a red gem in the knot. At her neck sat a red, diamond shaped gem in a black setting.

With a turn of her hand she summoned a silver sledgehammer, twirling it around as if it were as light as a baton.

“My name is Evangeline.” She said brightly, standing over Marinette. “It was a pleasure to meet you before you died.”

Today was officially a Bad Day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Should that kick have broken Marinettes rib cage? Probably. 
> 
> Are we going to ignore that? Yes we are. 
> 
> Evangeline is a character who’s existed in my head for about three years now, but I’ve only ever had a place-holder sort of design for her outfit - school uniform based, predominately white with red highlights. Writing this I knew I needed her to visually be very distinct from Chloe and Felicity, and I went through three different variations before I settled on the Victorian doll aesthetic but maintaining the original color scheme. I almost decided to make her coloring red-and-black to contrast with Chloés yellow-and-white, but I ultimately decided to keep it white because…well, you’ll see in the next chapter. >:)


	6. Understanding

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning - blood and teenagers in peril. I’m not sure if this is actually graphic enough to warrant the content warning, but I figured better to err on the side of caution.

“My name is Evangeline. It was a pleasure to meet you before you died.”

Marinette gasped and rolled out of the way just as the sledgehammer came down, leaving a crater where she had just laid.

“Wait! Stop!” Marinette cried out, scuttling backwards on the ground.

Evangeline stepped forward and brought the sledgehammer down again on her legs, but Marinette pulled her legs into her chest just in time to avoid the hit, letting the weapon left another crater in the street instead.

Marinette wasted no time in kicking her legs out and nailed Evangeline in the stomach.

The Magical Girl staggered back from the unexpected hit with a “Whoa!”, giving Marinette the seconds she needed to flip around to her front and scramble to her feet to run away down the street.

Only to skid to a stop when Evangeline took a flying leap to soar over Marinette head and land directly in front of her with a maniacal smile. “Gotcha!”

Evangeline swung the hammer around and Marinette leaned her whole upper body backwards to avoid the blow, the weapon coming so close Marinette felt the wind on her face.

In the same motion Marinette twisted around, nearly falling but recovering quickly enough to turn it into a run back up the way she came. She could see the exit of the side-street, safety less than 15 meters away, she just had to _reach it_ -

\- only to trip over her own feet and fall flat on her face.

The thrown hammer flew over her, harmlessly passing through the air where her head had just been.

“Seriously?” Evangeline exclaimed in disbelief.

Marinette started to climb back to her feet, but was knocked onto her back by a kick to her side and held down to the ground by a boot on her chest.

Evangeline regarded Marinette curiously as the girl struggled to push her boot off.

“Okay, I’m starting to get why Felicity and Kyubey were so interested in you,” she commented. “You’re a feisty one. I like that about you.”

She threw out her arm to the side, and from out her bell sleeve came a mallet with a black head and silver handle.

“I’m kind of sorry you have to die.”

“Don’t! DON’T!” Marinette screamed in panic, even as Evangeline raised her weapon.

She held the mallet in the air, smiling gently down at Marinette.

She glanced up.

The smile disappeared into wide-eyed shock as she leaned sharply to the side just in time to let a gold ring fly past.

She was fast enough to avoid decapitation, but not injury.

A stream of blood shot out of the side of her neck, and her free hand came up to slap against her neck to stem the flow. An instant later a streak of gold and white flew over Marinette and hit Evangeline, sending her flying down the street, bouncing and rolling to a stop, a macabre trail of blood connecting them.

Marinette pushed herself up in a sitting position as Chloé landed in front of her, resplendent in her yellow and white Magical Girl uniform, one hand with a trace of blood from the punch while the other held a second golden ring.

“Chloé!” Marinette exclaimed in relief and surprise. The other girl didn’t react, but as Evangeline climbed back to her feet Chloé gestured a hand backwards, palm facing Marinette. A barrier of criss-crossing glowing yellow chains appeared between Marinette and Chloé, cutting her off from the two Magical Girls squaring off.

Kyubey ran up from behind to Marinettes side, placing his front paws on her thigh to look up at her. “Marinette, are you alright? Are you hurt?”

Marinette looked at her scrapped hands, but shook her head. “No, I’m fine. What are you…?”

“I keep an eye on each girl I make a Contract with. When Evangeline attacked, I called Chloé to come back and save you.”

“What do you think you’re doing, anyway?” Chloé asked Evangeline coldly. “Attacking a civilian? I didn’t think you were THIS crazy just yet.”

Evangeline cooly regarded Chloé, dropping her hand from her neck. The blood had stopped, the injury healed over, but the red fluid had already drenched her left sleeve and side of her dress. She looked like a grotesque victorian doll, dressed up in lace and ribbons with blood still dripping from the hem of her skirt.

“Civilian? Please.” Evangeline said. “She’s a Magical Girl who hasn’t made her wish yet, and I’d rather remove the competition before she’s an actual threat.”

“I’m not going to become a Magical Girl!” Marinette burst out, getting to her feet. “I can’t!”

“Marinette is correct,” Kyubey added calmly. “She will not become a Magical Girl, you need not feel threatened by her."

Evangeline rolled her eyes. “Oh sure, she says that now and I’m sure she believes it. But then her mommy’s going to get sick, or her home with burn down, or her best friend’ll get hurt, and suddenly making a Contract won’t seem so bad if it means getting that one wish.”

“It wouldn’t matter even if she did,” Chloé countered. “Felicity is gone. At worst we’re back to three Magical Girls in the city, your territory stays the same and you lose nothing.”

Evangeline grinned, not appearing the least surprised by the news as she held up her hands in an exaggerated shrug.

“Or I can stop a new girl from making a contract and get at least half the city to myself. It’ll be nice to not have to scrape by for every Grief Seed I can get.”

Her grin widened into a fierce smile as she swung her mallet around to point it straight at Chloé.

“And you know what sounds better than half a city? An entire city all to myself.”

Evangeline dashed forward, and Chloé met her half way in a clash of weapons, Chloé deflecting the hammer strike and following up with a kick that Evangeline evaded.

Evangeline swung the hammer around, but Chloé leaned so far back her upper body was briefly parallel to the ground. In the same smooth motion she weightlessly brought her legs up to kick at Evangelines head. The kick connected, but while her head snapped to the side from the force Evangeline stood firm and swung her hammer around for Chloés head. Chloé, still floating after the last attack, dropped full body to the ground to let the hammer pass by, then with a great shove she pushed herself off the ground and into the air until she was floating a good five meters above her opponent.

She summoned rings around her arms, three on each, and threw the down at Evangeline below. The white and red Magical Girl effortlessly blocked them with her hammer, deflecting them harmlessly to either side. When the rings were used up Evangeline leapt off the ground and kicked off the nearby wall to bring her up higher than Chloé and attack from above. The narrow street and tall buildings limited Chloés mobility, forcing her to descend again to avoid the strike. Evangeline landed in a crouch, and both girls were briefly faced away from each other before they were turning to face each other again with weapons up.

Meanwhile, Marinette watched the battle in mounting horror at how dangerous, how deadly the battle was becoming. She looked down at Kyubey standing beside her feet and desperately asked “Can’t you stop them??”

“How could I?” Kyubey asked. “I don’t have the ability to stop them. Even if I could, I lack the right - this is a battle between Magical Girls now.”

Marinette shook her head in disbelief. “But…but if you don’t do anything…”

“I physically _can’t_ do anything.” Kyubey corrected her. “The ability to grant wishes does not make me omnipotent. Besides, with Felicity gone the power balance has shifted. It was only a matter of time before this fight happened.”

A loud bone-shattering CRACK ripped Marinettes attention back, in time to see Chloé sent flying limply into the air with a swing of the giant hammer. Evangeline leaped up to meet Chloé at the arc of her rise and with a sickening CRUNCH smashed her again with her weapon, slamming Chloé down with so much force it created a body sized crater in the pavement.

Marinette cried out in horror as Evangeline landed lightly besides the fallen girl, twirling her giant hammer as she circled around to Chloés head. The downed girl struggled to get up but fell back again, her arm twisted at an unnatural angle.

Marinettes mind was racing, eyes dashing around for a solution, a weapon, something she could use to stop Evangeline from -

Oh!

“Kyubey!” Marinette said loudly. “I know what I want to wish for!”

Evangeline snapped her head around and briefly made eye contact with Marinette, her expression looking panicked for the first. Time

She ran back towards Marinette and the barrier that separated them, already swinging her hammer around.

Marinette reflexively jumped back as Evangelines hammer hit the barrier full force. The barrier glowed bright at the point of contact, but held steady. Marinette shook her head and slowly, deliberately, spoke again.

“I wish…”

Evangeline struck at the barrier again and again with furious swings and manic energy -

“that I…”

\- her eyes wide and wild as she grunted with every strike, coming faster and faster -

“…had the power to…”

\- until Evangeline raised up her hammer above her head with both hands, and with a mighty war cry brought it down with all her might.

The barrier _shattered_ like glass, letting the hammer fall through to bury itself into the pavement. Marinette gave a short scream and scuttled back a few steps, but then held her ground.

Evangeline was bent slightly over from the last strike, but now slowly straightened and raised her head to look at Marinette, breathing heavily from exertion but smiling widely with victory.

Marinette clenched her fists, raised her chin, and defiantly met her gaze.

Evangelines smile faded into a confused frown.

Her frown was wiped away for wide eyed shock as her upper body jerked forward, head falling back and arms going out wide. She tumbled bonelessly forward, throwing her hands in front of her just in time to save her face from smashing into the ground. As she fell, Chloé was revealed behind her, still in the same spot she had crashed but sitting up, right arm hanging limply but left arm stretch out in front in a completed throwing position.

When Evangeline hit the ground, it revealed a gold ring impeded in her lower back, buried nearly two inches into her spine.

“GOD DAMN IT!” Evangeline screeched, even as she reached a hand back to blindly grasp at the ring.

Seizing the chance, Marinette dashed past the struggling Magical Girl to run over the Chloé. She slid to kneel down besides her and wrapped her good arm around her shoulders, helping her to her feet.

With a grunt Evangeline ripped the ring from her back. She tossed it to the side with a clang and put per hand on the wound, a red glow of light appearing.

They were running out of time.

“Can you walk? Can you run?” Marinette asked briskly, wrapping an arm carefully around Chloés waist.

Chloé sucked in a sharp breath through gritted teeth from the pain. Yet she still managed to give Marinette a haughty grin.

“Psh, walking? That’s…for peasants.”

Chloé pulled her arm back and wrapped it around Marinettes waist, pulled her close, and together they started to rise into the air.

Marinette yelped and wrapped her arounds around Chloés shoulders as best she could from her sideways position, watching the ground fall away below them. Evangeline, up on unsteady feet, yelled in fury as she leapt up after them in a desperate final attack. Chloé sharply moved them backwards and Evangelines hammer swung close enough Marinette could feel the wind of its passing.

Evangeline fell away with an infuriated yell as Chloé and Marinette flew up into the sky, leaving the bloodied Magical Girl a red and white speck in the narrow side-street. Higher and higher they rose, until all of Paris was laid out beneath them. It was a gorgeous sight, and Marinette probably would have appreciated it more if she hadn’t nearly died just a few minutes earlier.

“Can you…” Chloé gasped out, “…stay out…of trouble…for two seconds today?”

“Sorry,” Marinette muttered.

Chloé flew onwards, but Marinette paid no attention to where they were going, barely able to process what had just happened.

She had nearly died. She had nearly been _murdered_. She dimly recalled Felicity telling her of the Magical Girl who attacked her for more territory, but nothing she said prepared her for the girl herself.

Marientte had faced danger before, but it had been with the protection that came with being Ladybug. Even with Evilstrator and Princess Fragrance, she never felt her life was truly in danger.

But with Evangeline…she wanted Marinette _dead_.

She could feel the terror and delayed shock creeping in, and to stop herself from breaking down she forced herself to focus on the immediate physical sensations.

Chloés grip around her waist.

The cool breeze on her face.

The weightlessness in her stomach as they flew.

Actually, now that Marinette was forcing herself to focus on the feeling of it, it didn’t feel like her weight was being supported by the arm around her waist at all. Instead her body felt simply weightless, and Chloés arm was merely keeping her from floating away like a balloon on a string. Marinette wondered if Chloé had to create that effect deliberately or if was just a natural side effect of her flight ability.

Which, Marinette realized, seemed unique to Chloé alone.

_“Since I used my wish to heal myself, I get healing as my special talent,” Felicity explained, as the glowing gash began to shrink. “And before you say ‘Felicity, nooo, don’t worry about me, save your magic for the fight,’ it’s my special talent so it costs me basically nothing to do this.”_

That was all Felicity ever said about it, but it was enough for Marinette to understand the larger concept that Magical Girls received a unique talent or skill related to the wish they made. Following that, it was probably safe to assume that Chloés ability to fly was the special talent she received with her wish.

If the type of wish made influenced the talent, then what did this mean for the wish Chloé made?

Chloé landed them on the top of the tallest building in the area, releasing her hold Marinette and allowing the shorter girl to stumble away. It was only when she turned back around that Marinette saw the full extent of the damage. She covered her mouth in a horrified gasp.

Chloés right arm was clearly broken, the upper arm bend unnaturally inward as it hung limply at her side. What Marinette had failed to notice before was how the same side of her chest was caved inward and seeping red blood. She failed to notice the rapid, shallow breathes Chloé had to take, failed to notice how every line of the other girls body and expression radiated tension and pain.

“Chloé!” Marinette exclaimed, fluttering anxiously around Chloés injured side. “You-your-the hospital! We have to get you to the hospital!”

Chloé shook her head as she gingerly put her left hand over her broken ribs.

“Don’t be…ridiculous,” she wheezed, as a glow encompassed her hand.

With loud, sickening CRACKs her rib bones shifted back into place, the dent in her ribcage popping back out again. It was horrifying yet fascinating to watch, and Marinette was captivated even as she was sickened.

When she was done, Chloé tried to take a deeper breath only to start hacking an coughing. Marinette stood at her side with a hand on her back and Chloé bent and hacked out a mix of phlegm and blood. Only once it was out of her lungs did she straighten and breathe deeply with relief.

“That. Sucked.” Was Chloés expert assessment.

Both girls looked at the broken arm.

“This. Is going. To suck.”

Chloé briefly glanced around the ground around her, then snapped her fingers at Marinette. “Give me your blazer.

Marinette blinked in confusion. “What?”

Chloé rolled her eyes. “I want to sit down before I start on my arm, but the ground is dirty. Give me your blazer.”

Marinettes jaw dropped.

The shock at the sheer audacity passed quickly, and she frowned as she crossed her arms. “You could say please.”

Chloé furrowed her brow and twisted her lip in disgust. “Are you for real? I just saved your life!”

“And I’m very thankful for that. That doesn’t give you a free pass to treat me like dirt.”

“You’re being ridiculous! I bet if Ladybug were here you’d give HER your blazer!”

“If Ladybug were here she’d ask nicely!”

Chloé and Marinette glared daggers at each other. Chloé broke eye contact first, casting her eyes down and to the side, looking like she’d just swallowed a lemon.

“…Please.”

That was as good as it was ever going to get. Marinette shrugged off her blazer and laid it out on the ground.

Chloé gently floated down until she was kneeled on the blazer and gingerly felt her still broken arm. Marinettes annoyance quickly softened into concern, and a hint of shame.

“Do you have enough magic to heal that too?” Marinette asked, more gently, as she kneeled down next to her. Chloé gave her a sidelong glare.

“Of course!” She huffed. She looked back down at her arm and admitted “But I’ll save a lot of magic if I can set the bone is set first. Which is going to suck.”

Marinette took a deep breath, held it, and let it out.

“I can help with that.”

Chloé snapped her head around, wide eyed with shock. “You’ve set bones before??”

“No,” Marinette admitted.

Chloés shock was swiftly traded with an unimpressed, deadpan expression.

“But it’s gotta be better for ME to do it than for you to do it yourself.” Marinette added. “Accept it or don’t, but I promise I can make it fast.”

Chloé stared silently at her for a moment longer before shaking her head. Marinettes heart sank a little until Chloé spoke again.

“Don’t worry about getting the pieces perfectly aligned, just get it as straight as you can.”

Marinette nodded and shifted a little closer. She gingerly placed her hands above and below the unnatural curve of the break.

“Okay, on three. On, two, -”

With a _crack_ she bent the arm against the curve to align the bone.

“-three.”

Chloé threw her head back, eyes wide and jaw clenched against the muffled scream that tried to claw it’s way out, her good arm tense and hand spasming. Marinettes stomach twisted at the pained sound, but her hands remained steady and grip reasonably firm.

Chloé rapidly breathed through her nose for a few seconds as she acclimatized to the pain. Once she regained herself a bit, she closed her eyes and placed her good hand, already beginning to glow, over the break between Marinettes hands. After a few seconds Chloés breathing slowed and the tension seeped out of her, jaw unclenching and shoulders relaxing.

Marinette kept her hands were they were and didn’t remove them until the yellow glow faded. She sat back as Chloé experimentally moved her arm around. Satisfied, she finally released her Magical Girl transformation and was back in her normal clothes. She dropped her arms and gave Marinette a sidelong look.

“I really don’t get you, Dupain-Cheng,” she said bluntly.

Marinette raised her eyebrows slightly, but Chloé was already continuing.

“You freak out when I ask to sit on your blazer, but you jump to help with my broken arm. I don’t know what you want from me, but it’d be GREAT if you could make up your mind.”

A protest jumped up wanting argue that the problem was that Chloé didn’t ask for her blazer, she demanded it. But Marinette bit her tongue, because that wasn’t what this was about.

“I don’t get you either,” she admitted. “You risked your life to save me, you were so badly hurt protecting me when you could have just left me, and you don’t even like me, but then you’re…how can you do that and still be so _mean_ to everyone at school?”

Chloé frowned in confusion. “What are you talking about? I’m not mean.”

Much later Marinette would think back to this moment and faintly regret she didn’t have a picture of the expression she must have made.

“Okay, I’m not Rose or Mylene levels of sweet and nice,” Chloé amended. “I totally could be, but frankly I’m not going to waste the energy on people who aren’t worth it.”

Marinette threw her arms up in exasperation.

“That’s what I don’t get! You fight Witches to protect Pairs, you fought off another Magical Girl to save me - how is that _less_ energy that being nice??”

Chloé pointed a finger at Marinettes face.

“Okay, first, obviously it’s not. I said being nice to someone is a _waste_ of energy if they’re not worth it, and if it’s a waste it doesn’t matter how little it is, that’s still energy and effort I’d rather use for something else. And second, just because I’m not all rainbows and puppies doesn’t make me mean. I just call it like I see it, and if someone doesn’t like it then too bad. It’s their fault they can’t handle the truth.”

“Truth? Making fun of people isn’t being truthful, it’s just being mean! You can’t be so hurtful and act like you’re just being honest! That’s why there’s a thing called tact!”

Chloé closed her eyes and released an aggravated sign as she pinched the bridge of her nose. Seemingly getting a flash of inspiration she opened her eyes and held both hands up, fingers splayed wide.

“Okay! You know how when you were a little kid and you started drawing for the first time? You’d try to draw your house or your parents or whatever, and because you just started drawing it was all crap. But since you were a dumb kid, you didn’t know it was crap until you showed it to your mom and she tore it up and told you it was crap. So you either keep trying until you actually get good, or you figure out that drawing isn’t your thing and move onto something else. That’s kind of like what I’m doing for everyone else - I’m just letting them know what they’re doing wrong so they can either improve or stop wasting their time.”

Chloé gave a sharp nod to punctuate her point, crossing her arms with a self-satisfied smile.

Marinette sat there, slack-jawed.

“Your mom would tear up your drawings and tell you they were crap? To your face? When you were a little kid?” She asked slowly.

Chloés smiled faded in mild confusion, but a moment of understanding passed her face.

“Right, bad example. You’re nowhere near Nathaniels level but you’re still pretty artistic, so you probably started with greater natural talent for drawing. But you get my point, just think of whatever you did as a kid that your parents let you know was crap until you got better or moved on.”

Marinette slowly shook her head, wide eyed with shock. “I…my parents never did that. Parents aren’t supposed to do that!”

Now Chloé was the one who looked like she couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

“Seriously? Parents are supposed to want their kids to become exceptional. I get you’re parents are just lowly bakers but don’t they expect ANYTHING of you? Because if they’ve just completely given up on you that’s just sad.”

Marinette just gaped like a fish, too stunned to be offended.

There was SO MUCH to unpack there. Preferably by a trained professional, because fourteen year old Marinette knew she was absolutely not ready for it. She shook her head and reminded herself what started the conversation.

“Getting back on track for a minute, even if you didn’t think you were being mean before, you still cause more akumas than anyone else. Doesn’t that tell you anything? Wouldn’t you rather just put in a little more effort so you can stop being targeted to often?”

Chloé narrowed her eyes and pressed her lips into a thin line before standing, Marinette following suite

“This is ridiculous. I don’t have to justify myself to you, I’m done talking.”

She turned away form Marinette and held up her hand, summoning her Soul Gem. Marinette came around and gasped.

The gem that should have glowed a bright yellow was now more of a deep bronze, barely putting out any light. Around the bottom rim there was a clear line of blackness, fairly thin, but Marinette never saw the same on Felicity’s gem and could only assume it wasn’t a good sign.

From the look on Chloés face, she assumed correctly.

“Do you have a Grief Seed with you?” Marinette asked worriedly. Chloé shook her head.

“I keep one in my purse, but thanks to the Princess Fragrance fiasco it’s still at the hotel.”

She fisted her hand and let the gem transform back into a ring on her middle finger. She lightly pounded the fist to her chest, releasing a yellow from the point of impact that travelled across her body, transforming her back into her Magical Girl costume, much to Marinettes alarm.

“Whoa, wait! You shouldn’t be wasting your magic, we can use my phone to call your limo or something!”

“If we did that, I’ll probably have to explain to Daddy what I’m doing in this part of Paris, and I’d rather not,” Chloé answered. “Besides, flying is my special skill, it costs me almost nothing.”

Without bothering to ask or warn her, Chloé wrapped an arm around Marinettes waist again to pull her close and shot up into the air, much faster that previously and once again prompting a yelp and a bit of desperate clinging from the dark haired girl.

Judging from the way Chloé smirked, it was absolutely on purpose.

Surprisingly, or perhaps not so surprisingly, Chloé opted to take Marinette home first, dropping her off on the roof patio so she could discreetly get to her room. As Chloé put it, “If I have to save you one more time today I might have to strangle you myself.”

Before Chloé could fly off again, Marinette grabbed her by the wrist.

“Now what??” Chloé asked.

Marinette glanced down briefly, biting her lip, before looking up again at Chloé as she hovered in the air.

“I’m sorry I didn’t say this properly before, but thank you. Thank you for saving my life.”

Chloé blinked down at her, face expressionless, hovering in place even as Marientte released her wrist. She eventually huffed and looked away.

“Yeah, well, it wouldn’t be very heroic of me if I let you die.”

With that she shot away, quickly becoming a small dot in the sky.

Also somewhat unsurprisingly, Tikki was something of a frantic mess once they were finally alone again.

“I know I’ve often stressed how important it is for you to keep your identity as Ladybug a secret, but the point was to keep you safe!” Tikki cried, fluttering around Marinettes head. “If you’re in immediate life threatening danger it’s not worth it anymore! The Accord binds me from revealing myself to Magical Girls, but you’re still allowed to transform if your life is in danger! Why didn’t you transform as soon as you knew Evangeline was a threat??”

Marinette cupped the kwami in her hands, bringing her close, regret and sadness plain on both their expressions.

“I’m sorry Tikki, I don’t think I was thinking all that clearly. It all happened so fast, and then Chloé was there and it was her life on the line instead of mine and I just…”

Marinette felt tears welling up as she leaned back against her beds headboard.

“I’m so _useless_ Tikki! I said I was going to protect her, but I haven’t been able to do _anything!_ I can’t get her to open up to Ladybug, I couldn’t help her against Evangeline, I couldn’t even keep her safe from the akuma today! I can’t even pretend Ladybug found out some other way, because she’ll think Marinette told her and I’ll loose all trust with her! I told Chat I’d still find a way but I don’t…”

The tears came down Marinettes cheeks, her voice cracking.

“…I don’t know what else to do.”

Tikki wrapped both her arms around Marinettes thumb.

It’s hard, wanting to help someone and not having the power,” she said gently. “I know how badly you ant to protect Chloé, but there are other ways than fighting with her.”

Marinette shook her head even as she sniffed and wiped her cheeks with her spare hand.

“Chloé was already risking her life with every Witch she fought, and now she as Evangeline gunning for her. If I’m not guarding her back, then what good am I?!”

Tikki lowered her eyes and reminded silent for a few moments of deep thought.

“Do you know what the single greatest enemy any human can face is?” She asked finally.

“Marinette blinked in confusion. Now that she had her Chosens full attention, Tikki answered her own question.

“It’s despair. Once it takes hold, it’s very hard to overcome. It traps its victims in darkness that seems to go on forever, and it is an insidious danger because it can happen so quietly that no one around them may notice it’s even happened. It can affect anyone, rich or poor, old or young, and will destroy them from the inside. It is the utter loss of hope, and can only be defeated by hope itself.

“The Ladybug Miraculous holds the power of Good Fortune and Creation, but intrinsically tied to both is the very concept of _hope_ itself. Hope that things will get better, that things can be changed, that this too shall pass.

“If you can’t fight besides Chloé, then stand at her side. Never let her forget hope, and you will save her a thousand times over.”

Marinette lowered her eyes in thought. She turned her head to look towards her window, thoughts of despair and hope circling her mind.

She frowned, resolve renewed. She knew what she had to do.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Meanwhile, back in her suite at Le Grand Paris, Chloé sat on her bed as she drained the darkness from her Soul Gem with her last remaining Grief Seed, Kyubey sitting patiently besides her. When the seed had absorbed as much as it could, the gem was noticeably clearer but still wasn’t at full brightness, and thus not a full power. Chloé gave a quiet curse.

“That’s it? I thought I had more left in this seed.”

“The fight with Evangeline and the subsequent healing took a great deal out of you,” Kyubey pointed out. “Unsurprising, healing has never been one of your strong suits.”

“Yeah, well, it didn’t have to be before,” Chloé said softly, recalling times of gentle hands and warm green glow. She tossed the used up Grief Seed to the side at Kyubey without even bothering to look.

The white center of the red circle on his back slide up to reveal an empty compartment within his very body. He leapt up in the air so his back end was higher than the front, leaving his back perfectly angled to catch the seed in the exposed opening. It slide shut before he even finished falling back to the bed.

Without missing a beat, Kyubey said “We need to talk about Evangeline.”

Chloés hands clenched, gripping the fabric of her white pants.

“What’s to talk about?” She asked, looking straight ahead. “She attacked Dupain-Cheng, then she attacked me and I fought back. She’s been pushing for more territory ever since she got here, and I’m not going to roll over and give up Paris to her!”

“And what if she attacked Marinette again?” Kyubey asked.

Chloé felt her stomach clench with nausea. She spent years despising the pig-tailed girl, but she never wanted her dead. Now she was being targeted by a dangerous enemy she couldn’t fight back against and who wanted her dead out of simple, twisted pragmatism.

Her expression twisted as if her next words physically pained her.

“I hate to admit it, but letting her make a Contract will be the best way to keep her safe. She’ll be able to defend herself, and the two of us can keep Evangeline in check like Felicity and I used to.”

“Valid points, certainly, but irrelevant. Marinette is not going to become a Magical Girl, and you should not depend on it.”

Chloé let out a heavy sigh and fell backwards onto her bed. “And normally I’d agree that she’d make a _terrible_ Magical Girl - she’s clumsy and scatter brained and too much a busy body, she’d get eaten alive by the first Witch she fought. But it’s got to be better than leaving her defenseless. Even if she's a crappy Magical Girl, I can work with her to at least bring her up to mediocre.”

“A generous offer,” Kyubey said, tone ever pleasant and even. “But she cannot become a Magical Girl, and there’s nothing I can do to change that. Unless I can find another girl willing to make a Contract with me, you’re going to have to deal with Evangeline on your own.”

Chloé silently stared up at the ceiling, right arm coming up to rest across her ribs. She held her left hand up towards the ceiling, fingers splayed as she looked at the silver ring on her middle finger, the cistrine gem glittering. On the nail of the same finger, a yellow hexagon was stamped as an additional physical confirmation of the Contract she had made.

“I know when I first started I wasn’t strong enough to beat someone like Evangeline,” Chloé said, still looking at her hand held above her. “Am I strong enough now?”

Kyubey sat perfectly still as he answered, nary a twitch of tail, body, or expression.

“A Magical Girls base strength is governed by three primary factors: the special ability she receives with her wish, the amount of karmic destiny she has available to convert to raw power, and how experienced she is in utilizing both. You had superior karmic destiny, but you’ve only been a Magical Girl for two and a half months while Evangeline has been fighting for almost a year. Your flight gives a tremendous advantage in battle, but only if you have the space to fully utilize it. If Evangeline catches you in an enclosed space, that advantage is gone. Evangeline still struggles to use her special ability effectively because of how aggressively she fights, but it’s not limited by her environment either.

“My honest assessment is that you only have about a 35%-40% change of actually defeating her at best.”

Chloés raised hand clenched into a fist, manicured nails digging painfully into her hand. But after a moment she let it relax and drop so her arm laid across her forehead.

“And the fastest way to improve those odds?” She asked.

“Stockpile as many Grief Seeds as you can, conserve your magic, don’t engage in battle in areas where you don’t have maneuverability, and most important of all, when you ARE ready for a final battle strike first with the element of surprise,” Kyubey rattled off. “You might still die, but your chances of victory will go up significantly.”

“Stockpile Grief Seeds. Sure, that’ll be easy, we’re just BOOMING with Witches right now,” Chloé said, dripping in sarcasm.

“If you’re going to complain about a lack of Witches, you could stop destroying Familiar and just let them feed long enough to grow into Witches themselves,” Kyubey pointed out.

Chloé shot back up.

“Absolutely not!” She exclaimed in horror. “I’m not going to let people DIE just so I can have a Witch to harvest! I’m NOT going to sink to Evangelines level!”

“Then you’re going to have to patrol longer and wider and hope you’ll find enough Witches to make up the deficit.” Kyubey replied. “Starting tonight, after you’ve had a chance to eat.”

Chloé groaned, but having used up her last Grief Seed she already knew she didn’t have a choice. The thought of eating now, stomach twisting with anxiety and phantom pains still ghosting her ribs, made her almost want to retch. Even so she reached over to her hotel phone to place an order with the kitchen. She couldn’t afford to starve herself and loose more strength.

After forcing down as much of her meal as she could stand, Chloé bent down slightly to let Kyubey hop onto her shoulder and left her suite. She spent the elevator ride checking her phone for any reports of car crashes, accidental deaths or suicide sites she could check out, and was caught up in a promising report by the time she made it to the lobby.

In fact she was so caught up in what she was reading she completely missed who was coming up to her.

“Hi Chloé.”

“BWAH!”

The blonde leapt back in surprise, which swiftly turned to shock to find _Marinette Freaking Dupain-Cheng_ _standing right there!_ Holding, for some inexplicable reason, a pink cardboard bakery box.

The girl winced and smiled apologetically. “Sorry, didn’t mean to to startle you.”

Chloé was able to restrain herself from yelling, but just barely.

“Dupain-Cheng?!” She scream-whispered. “What the - why - just how stupid are you?!”

Marinette had the AUDACITY to look mildly offended.

Chloé didn’t bother waiting for a response, grabbing the shorter girl by the upper arm and dragging her away, out of the lobby and down a hall until she found them an empty room. Kyubey gripping her shoulder a little more tightly the whole way there. Once they were alone, Chloé released Marinette and whirled around on her.

“Just how STUPID are you?” Chloé repeated angrily. “In case you forgot, Evangelines put a target on your back and wants to KILL you, and you’re just wandering around all willy nilly? Are you TRYING to get killed?”

Marinette cringed back, abashed.

“I’m sorry, but I promise I was careful. I stayed out in the open and I stuck with the largest groups of people I could find coming in this direction, I was never alone.”

“A good idea,” Kyubey piped up, still sitting on Chloé’s shoulder. “Evangeline won’t attack you while there are witnesses, and the more people around the better.”

“It was still a stupid idea!” Chloé repeated, crossing her arms. “How could you be sure that would work? What if you found yourself alone? What if Evangeline decided to say ‘screw it’ and attack you anyway? What are you even DOING here??”

Marinette calmly waited out Chloés angry rant, and when she was finished she took a deep, steadying breath before she answered.

“I want to join you on your patrols.”

Chloé stared at her for a long, silent moment.

“…Did Evangeline hit you in the head? Is this brain damage talking?”

Marientte shook her head, and met Chloés eyes with determination.

“I’ve learned a lot these past few weeks. I’ve been in the Labyrinths, I’ve seen the Witches, and today I’ve seen how brutal a fight between Magical Girls can be. But that’s not enough to understand exactly what you’re going through. I may never understand that. And it wasn’t until today that I realized I never understood who you were as a person either. I just dismissed you as a cruel, shallow, selfish irredeemable bully. And honestly, you still kind of are.”

“I can still have you thrown out of the building,” Chloé warned, crossed arms tightening slightly. Marinette continued undeterred.

“But I also realized that none of that matters. No one deserves to face this alone, and I’m not going to let anything scare me off. Not Witches, not Evangeline, not even you at your bossiest.”

Chloé looked at her confused, as if Marinette were speaking a foreign language. Her expression slowly cleared and turned cold and flat, arms uncrossing to fall limply at her sides.

“And in exchange you get a bodyguard and all the perks that come with having a rich ‘friend’.” Chloé surmised, even making finger quotes at ‘friend’.

Marinette blinked, briefly perplexed, then shook her head.

“Believe it or not, I’m not here because I’m looking to get anything out of this. I can’t even imagine how much stress you must be dealing with, and I have no intention of adding to that if I can help it. I just…”

She trailed off, eyes lowering slightly as her mind went back in time, to when she first became Ladybug. When she was oscillating between terror and exhilaration. When she felt the heady, overwhelming joy of feeling invincible and the crushing pressure of responsibility and duty in equal measure.

She remembered kind green eyes and gentle words and warm hands on her shoulders, and when she first knew, in her heart and soul, that she wasn’t….

“I just want to you know that you’re not alone.”

Chloés expression changed minutely, but only enough to look completely blank, standing as still as a statue. Marinette was equally still and quiet, as if neither girl dared to so much as breathe.

After a long, tense moment, Chloé finally responded.

“Well. You’ll probably be safer in a Labyrinth with me than out in the open where Evangeline can find you anyway.”

Marinette felt her heart leap, and she couldn’t stop the joy from shining on her face, to Chloés surprise and mild revulsion.

“Ugh, would you stop looking at me like that?! You’re going to make me sick!”

“Sorry!” Marinette replied cheerfully, her smile not diminishing in the slightest. Chloé huffed and looked away awkwardly, arms crossed again and face scowling.

“I think this is an excellent idea,” Kyubey chimed in finally. “I agree with Chloés risk assessment of you being in a Labyrinth versus facing Evangeline again. Besides Chloé, you do tend to get reckless when you fight. If Marinette is there it may force you to be more careful.”

“Reckless?” Chloé repeated, outraged. “How have I been reckless?!”

Marinette briefly recalled Chloé dive-bombing into the Hydra Witch and immediately tried to banish the memory.

“You should probably start patrolling before it gets too late,” Kyubey said, ignoring Chloés indignant question. “And what do you have there Marinette?”

With a small start, Marinette opened the lid of the pale pink box she had brought with her and held it up. A savory, cheesy smell wafted through the air, and Chloé would go die before she admitted how the smell made her mouth water.

“I brought gougères,” Marinette explained. “I thought they’d be nice to munch on if anyone got hungry.”

Chloé stared into the box for the moment, and the delectable looking pastries nestled inside, before reaching in to pluck one out. Wordlessly she examined it for a moment before taking a bite.

For all that she prided herself on her refined tastes, she couldn’t quite stop a look of sheer bliss from crossing her face. She caught herself quickly tough and schooled her expression back into one of superior indifference.

“They're not terrible, so I’ll allow you to keep bringing whatever treats you deem acceptable,” Chloé declared.

Marinette couldn’t stop a quick eye roll, but Chloé was already sweeping past her to leave the room.

“Hurry up Marinette, I want to try to get at least an hour of decent patrol out of tonight so today won’t be a total bust.”

Marinette followed after and quickly caught up, walking side by side with Chloé.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Marinette: *keeps thinking about how much emotional support Chat gives her and how much she relies on him, moreso than she does anyone else in her life currently, and how he has helped her grow as a person and heroine.*
> 
> Also Marientte: I’m so lucky to have such a wonderful friend!
> 
> Me: GIRL.
> 
> Marinette and Chloés rooftop conversation did. Not. Want. To be written! I went through four different versions and three different directions because I couldn’t control these two!!
> 
> But when I started the scene I realized it was an important opportunity to reveal an aspect of the emotional abuse Chloé has grown up with and how she has normalized it. It was also important for Marientte because it helps to re-contextualize a large part of Chloés behavior and personality. The hard part was getting it to come across naturally and not letting these two go off on tangents.
> 
> As despicable as Audrey is as a person, she was still extremely important in fleshing out Chloés backstory and why she is the way she is. She’s actually very close to what my head-canon was for Chloés mother - negligent and emotionally abusive, but Chloé not realizing how toxic she is. The biggest difference is that I imagined her parents already being divorced, which I still think would make more sense than André and Audrey still being married.
> 
> Can I also take a moment to say I HATE how the show frames Marinette helping Chloé and Audrey ‘reconcile’ as being a good thing? Chloé needs people in her life that will encourage her to be her best self, not people who’ll just encourage her worst traits!
> 
> Gougères are a French cheese pastry that looked delicious to me. Look at me, my fic is so authentic. :P


	7. Insight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, weekly updates aren't going to be a thing anymore. So have here a mammoth of a chapter. *chucks it out*.
> 
> And by 'mammoth', I mean slightly-longer-than-average. ^_^;
> 
> I really hope neither girl came off as OOC in this. There isn't a whole lot of action in this chapter, but I felt it was important to show what spending more time together would be like for these two with the new dynamic and understanding they're gaining of each other. See the end notes for some of my thoughts on this chapter.

Intellectually, Adrien knew that him staying out of the Magical Girl business was for the best. There _may_ have been a way to involve himself while protecting Ladybugs identity, but he couldn’t think of any that carried zero risk of reveal. All it’d take was one careless comment from the Magical Girl herself and it’d be all over. While Adrien would love to know who his Lady really was and for her to know him, he understood the need for secrecy to protect them both while Hawkmoth was at large and respected Ladybugs desire for privacy.

None of this changed the fact that not being able to help Ladybug directly was slowly but surely driving him CRAZY.

It was like a constant buzzing at the back of his head; the anxiety was quiet enough that it never stopped him from functioning, yet persistent enough that it never allowed him to forget it either. In a way it almost made him grateful for his packed schedule of classes and activities - keeping busy made it almost impossible to focus on that anxiety for long.

It didn’t help that he still had to deal with more mundane annoyances stretching his patience daily. One such came quickly running as Adrien was returning to school from lunch.

“ADRIKINS!”

Adrien had about half a second to grimace and brace himself before Chloé latched herself onto his arm. Chloé looked up at him with what he assumed was supposed to be a flirtatious smile, either oblivious to his discomfort or outright ignoring it.

“I’ve missed you Adrikins!” Chloé said in that high voice that was probably meant to sound cute but just came across as grating. “Since you’re free this afternoon, let’s go out together after school.”

Of course Chloé still remembered his extracurricular activities schedule.

“Sorry Chloé, I can’t,” Adrien answered, trying and failing to gently pull his arm away. “I’ve already made plans. For the whole afternoon. Not going to have time for anything else unfortunately.”

Chloé pouted and leaned in a little closer even as Adrien subtly tried to lean away. “Doing what then? Maybe I can join you, I’ll enjoy anything if you’re there.”

“Ha-hahaa, thanks but I know the zoo isn’t the kind of thing you usually enjoy,” Adrien said with mild desperation. To his shock, Chloés grip immediately loosened as she stepped back in clear surprise

“The zoo?” She repeated. Adrien took the opportunity to reclaim his arm, which Chloé let go without a fight.

“Yeah. They have a new panther exhibit,” he explained. “It sounded cool to me, but you’d just be bored the whole time.”

Chloés eyes narrowed suspiciously as she planted her fists on her hips.

“Are you going on a date with Dupain-Cheng?” She asked seriously.

Adrien just about leapt of his skin.

“What?!” He exclaimed in a high pitch voice he didn’t even realize he was still capable of.

“You heard me.” Chloé said, unfazed. Adrien rapidly shook his head in denial.

“I-no-she’s not-it’s Ninos date, not mine, _how did you know Marinette would be there??_ ”

“Not important,” Chloé said. “If this is supposed to be a date between Lahiffe and Dupain-Cheng, what are YOU doing there then?”

Seeing that any further resistance would be futile, Adrien sent a silent apology to Nino and admitted tothe plan to help him confess his feelings to Marinette. At the end of it Chloé raised a judgmental eyebrow.

“You boys are utterly ridiculous,” she said flatly.

“Hey, I thought it was a pretty good plan,” Adrien protested mildly. Chloé rolled her eyes.

“That’s because you’re a romantic dork,” she said, almost fondly. “Only you would think a reverse Cyrano would be a good idea.”

“First of all, my idea is WAY better than Cyrano's,” Adrien said in mock seriousness. “At least with my plan the odds of anyone dying at the end are minimal. I did the math, it’s like less than ten percent.”

“Aaaand now the date is jinxed. If I find out tomorrow that the panther ate Lahiffe, I’m blaming you.”

“That’s reasonable,” Adrien conceded. “And I still want to know how you found out about all this.”

“I asked Dupain-Cheng what she was doing this afternoon and she told me,” Chloé answered with a straight face.

“No, really.”

“I have a secret army of street urchin spies at my beck and call.”

“The fact that I honestly find that more believable says a lot,” Adrien said, relaxed and smiling honestly, a smile that Chloé was returning.

He had missed this. He had missed this side of Chloé, the girl he had known all his life. He missed the playful snark, he missed their banter, he missed how aggressively caring she could be. He missed how comfortable they used to be with each other.

It felt very much like being reunited with an old, dear friend he hadn’t seen in a long time, and he missed her so much he _ached_.

But then the bell rang to signal the end of lunch and the spell was broken. In the blink of an eye his childhood friend was gone and the stranger he attended school with was back.

“Well, make time for me this weekend, m’kay?” She said with the high pitched voice again. She kissed the tips of two fingers with a ‘mwah’ and tapped it to Adriens cheek, in spite of his attempt to lean back and avoid it.

Undeterred, Chloé linked her arm around Adriens again so they could walk ‘together’ back to class. Adrien merely allowed her to pull him along.

When he first came to school, he used to wonder why Chloé put on such a mean-spirited and spiteful mask with their classmates rather than letting them see her real self, why she acted so clingy and possessive of him when she didn’t use to be. Nowadays, he wonders if the girl he was friends with _was_ the mask, while the classmate was her true self and he was only now seeing it.

Many times the question danced at the tip of his tongue, crouching, waiting, wanting to come out: Which persona was the real Chloé? And either way, why did she spend so much time _pretending_?

But just like every time before, fear of the answer forced him to swallow the question back down again.

~*~*~*~*~*~

“Are you KIDDING me right now?!”

“Hey, Chloé was right: you DID jinx the date! I’m so proud of you!”

“Really Plagg?? Claws out!”

~*~*~*~*~*~

“Hey Ladybug, mind if I ask you something?”

Ladybug glanced at Chat Noir to gauge if he was being serious or flirty (serious), out the store window facing the street (still clear), then towards the back of the Dupain-Cheng bakery (door firmly closed). Satisfied, she gave a nod.

“About what?”

“About the Witches.”

Ladybugs eyebrows rose sharply. “If you’re bringing this up now it must be important. What’s on your mind?”

Chat frowned slightly as he tried verbalize the thoughts that had been stewing in his head for the last couple of weeks now.

“Hawkmoth and Witches both pick their targets based on their negative emotions, but Witches seem to require a higher threshold that Hawkmoth does,” he began slowly. He jerked a thumb to point outside. “Case in point: Animan, the man akumitized because he got mad at some random kid making fun of his panther. Felicity also told you there’ve been a lot less Witches than there used to be, and that the ‘drought’ started a couple months earlier, right about the same time Hawkmoth appeared. That can’t be coincidence, not if the pattern has held up this long.”

Ladybugs eyes widened briefly, then narrowed. “You’re right, that is too much of a coincidence. So what do you think it means?”

“I’m not sure yet,” Chat Noir admitted. “This doesn’t mean Hawkmoth knows about the Witches and it doesn’t mean this is a deliberate choice on his part, but something about what he’s doing is affecting the Witches and how quickly they’re able to form.”

Ladybug let her eyes lower, a rare look of genuine fear filling her expression as the full implication of what Chat was saying hit her.

“If you’re right, if he really is acting as a sort of Witch suppressor, then defeating him would mean…”

Chat felt his stomach lurch and immediately regretted ever bringing up his concerns. He wanted to _help_ his Lady, not add to her burdens!

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said anything,” Chat said quickly. “I could be totally off base here, and it’s not like we can let Hawkmoth run amok because of what _might_ happen. The Magical Girls were doing just fine keeping Witches in check before, right? And Kyubey can always recruit more…Magical…Girls.”

Chat trailed off as he realized that he was presenting the recruitment of teenagers into life-and-death battles against magical monsters, one of whom Ladybug was already forced to witness die horribly, as being a _good_ thing. From the look on Ladybugs face, she had the same thought.

“Sorry,” Chat muttered. Ladybug shook her head.

“It’s alright, I know what you meant,” she assured him. “Maybe the kwamis know more about it. Did you ask Plagg?”

Chats expression soured. “Yeah, I ran it past him. His response boiled down to ‘Good question, wish I could help.’”

“Did the Accord stop him from answering?” Ladybug asked worriedly. Chat shook his head.

“No, it’s because this situation is basically unprecedented. The Butterfly Miraculous has been stolen and used for evil before in the past, but Plaggs never had real time updates of what was going on with the Magical Girls and Witches at the same time. The same probably holds for Tikki, assuming previous Ladybugs kept their partners in the loop like you do.”

A brief look of guilt crossed Ladybugs face. Unease rose up in Chats chest.

“Ladybug…? Is everything okay?”

The heroine glanced away. “Well…”

A high pitched SCREEE announced Animans arrival, signaling they were out of time.

“We are picking this up again later,” Chat said, readying himself for the Akuma.

“Later,” Ladybug promised as she took out her yo-yo.

~*~*~*~*~*~

‘Later’ came after an Akuma battle, a re-charge, and a phone call to Nino to make sure he was alright and check if he needed Adrien to come back. Fortunately he was doing just fine, in more ways than one.

“Wait, Alya? Really? I thought you just threw her name out because you panicked!”

“I DID! At least at the time I did! But we were stuck in that cage for a couple hours, so we got to talking and it turns out we have a lot in common. She’s just…really comfortable to be around, you know?”

Adrien recalled the near instant connection he had with Ladybug the first time they met. Even with the crazy situation they found themselves in and the necessity of being able to work together as partners, he found himself just clicking with her in a way he rarely did with anyone else.

It would be a stretch to compare what happened with him and Ladybug to Nino and Alya, but Adrien couldn’t say he didn’t understand that feeling of an almost unexplainable yet undeniable connection.

After Nino confirmed he and Alya were going to spend the rest of the day hanging out, Chat was free to rendezvous with Ladybug again at their hastily chosen rooftop meet up spot, about an hour after the Akuma fight was over.

“Is everything okay Ladybug?” Was the first thing out of Chats mouth when she landed on the rooftop.

“I’m fine,” she answered. “It’s just, after the last time we talked, there were new…developments. Serious developments that you need to know about.”

And so Ladybug told him about her encounter with the third Magical girl in the city. Chat was quite surprised when Ladybug immediately gave her name - who names their kid ‘Evangeline’ outside of poetry writing? - but the reason why quickly became clear.

“She attacked you?!” Chat exclaimed in horror. Ladybug was quick to step forward to put her hands on his shoulders.

“It’s okay, I was okay, Kyubey was able to bring our Magical Girl back to protect me, Evangeline never got a chance to lay a hand on me,” she assured him. “I’ll be joining our Magical Girl on her patrols, and I’ll be careful to stay around other people so Evangeline can’t catch me alone again.”

Instead of being calmed, Chat stepped back out of her grip and fisted his hands in his hair, pacing back and forth.

“How do you know that’ll be good enough? Evangelines a wild card, how do you know that’s going to be enough? What if she follows you home one day or, or, or decides it’s easier to just kill any witnesses?! That’s it, we’re DONE pretending, I don’t care how pissed off our Magical Girl is going to be, I’m not waiting on the sidelines while you’re-”

A pair of red and black spotted arms wrapped around his middle, stopping him in his tracks. He could feel Ladybug press closer against his back as she hugged him, her face resting between his shoulder blades.

“I’m sorry,” she said quietly. “I didn’t want to scare you or make you worry. I know this isn’t what you want to hear, but I still need you to stay back. If our Magical Girl finds out I betrayed her trust, she’ll shut us out forever and any chance we have to keep her alive will be gone.”

Chat didn’t move, other than to place his arms over Ladybugs.

“If I had to choose between your life and hers, I’d pick yours every time,” he said. Ladybugs arms tightened briefly around him.

“If I had to, I’d pick you too,” she admitted quietly. “But I don’t want to have to. That’s why you needed to know about Evangeline. I don’t think you’re in any real danger, even if you did meet her by chance, but I don’t understand her well enough to predict what she will and won’t do. I’d rather you be forewarned and prepared even if nothing happens, than assume she won’t attack you because you’re a boy.”

“So meanwhile I stay on the sidelines, doing nothing, while you’re being hunted by one Magical Girl and following another into Labyrinths,” Chat said, not bothering to hide his bitterness. “Why do you have to keep doing this? Why do you have to keep following her if she doesn’t actually want any help? This isn’t worth your life.”

He felt Ladybug shake her head against his back.

“I have to do this because it doesn’t matter how strong she is in a fight, she can’t do this without support. She won’t admit it, but I think she’s grateful to have someone willing to stand at her side. Even if I’m not fighting with her, I can support her and encourage her, and will make a huge difference for her.”

“And what makes you so sure she needs that?”

Ladybugs held him a little tighter.

“Because that’s what you do for me every day.”

Chat gasped. He spun around in Ladybugs arms and wrapped her in a hug, burying his face in her shoulder. Ladybug held his as well, running a soothing hand down his back until his shoulders stopped shaking.

~*~*~*~*~*~

After the emotional roller coaster the day had been, Adrien wanted nothing more than to collapse in his room and just _not think_ for a little while. He still wasn’t completely okay keeping out of the Magical Girl business, especially knowing someone like Evangeline was out there adding another layer of danger, but he understood why Ladybug felt she had to do this.

And, he had to admit, it was reassuring to know how much Ladybug valued his support, even if she didn’t feel the way for him as he did for her.

Back in his bedroom, Adrien collapsed on his couch while Plagg settled himself on a pillow strategically placed in the most prime sunbathing spot in the room. Unfortunately he only had a couple minutes of peace before his phone began ringing.

With a groan Adrien dug his cellphone out of his pocket. His stomach plummeted when a glance at the phone screen showed him Chloés picture grinning up at him.

For a long moment, Adrien let the phone ring as he looked at the picture.

“Yo, you gonna answer that or what?” Plagg asked from his pillow. Adrien let out a sigh through his nose and finally declined the call.

He felt slightly bad about it, but he didn’t have the energy to deal with Chloés brand of high maintenance right now.

He didn’t know when he ever would.

~*~*~*~*~*~

The good news was that Marinette made it to school this morning with time to spare!

The bad news was that it came at the cost of running smack into Nathaniel just as he was putting his markers away. No one was hurt, but now she had several rainbow streaks across her shirt. Nathaniel was incredibly apologetic, and Marinette assured him it wasn’t his fault at all as best she could before rushing to the bathroom to try and clean up before classes started.

Unfortunately that buffer of time she had been so pleased with was swiftly being eaten up as she tried to wash out the marks in the school bathroom sink, too focused on her task to notice or care who was coming or leaving.

“Ladybug luck my foot, this is false advertising,” she muttered quietly. Tikki giggled from her purse but quickly quieted as the door opened again. Marinette paid it no mind, scrubbing the cloth of her shirt against itself with sudsy soap until something small and hard smacked against the back of her head.

“Hey!” She exclaimed, finally looking up.

Chloé stood there, looking very annoyed and holding out an orange and white tube.

“You’re a walking disaster, how are you NOT prepared for this?” She asked, shoving the tube at Marinette.

The shorter girl grabbed at it, and once she had a chance to look at it realized it was a tide to-go pen.

“You seriously carry one of these with you?” Marinette asked, rinsing the soap out of her shirt.

“Duh. How else can I be sure I’ll always look as fabulous as possible?” Chloé asked, now examining herself in the mirror. Finding some imperfection, she dug into her purse and pulled out a small make up kit and carefully selected her tools. With a shrug Marinette made good use of the pen, rubbing the tip against the worst of the marks.

“Anyway, I’ve been thinking and it’ll be better if I meet you at your place from now on,” Chloé said as she focused on herself in the mirror. “Safer than you walking to the hotel by yourself everyday. Does your bakery sell lavender macaroons? Pack a box of those, I’m in the mood for something sweet and floral. Be ready at five thirty sharp, I hate to be kept waiting.”

Marinettes hand stopped as she glared at Chloé through the mirror. The blond caught her expression and rolled her eyes.

“ _Please_.”

Marinette gave a little huff, but counted it as progress. And, she had to admit, she felt a lot safer with Chloé coming to her home rather than vice versa.

“Can we push it back to seven thirty instead?” Marinette asked as she resumed rubbing out the marks. “I’m behind on the assigned reading for French and I haven’t even touched my history paper, I was hoping to catch up on some of my work today.”

“You can read while you walk, and Sabrinas already working on my history paper, she can do yours too,” Chloé said, not even bothering to pause in fixing her eye liner.

“I’m not going to cheat!” Marinette exclaimed, horrified by the suggestion. “And you can’t just volunteer Sabrina to do other peoples work like that either!”

Chloé dismissively waved off Marinettes concern with the hand she used to hold the eye liner pencil.

“Relax, she likes being useful. And frankly, she’d be doing the same amount of research anyway. Writing one more paper isn’t going to be that hard for her. You should give her a couple of your old essays though, that way she can imitate your writing style.”

“What part of ‘I am not going to cheat’ did you not get?” Marinette asked crossly. Chloé rolled her eyes.

“Don’t think of it as cheating then,” she said, putting the pencil away and taking out her lip gloss. “Think of it as being efficient and prioritizing your time. Let’s be honest, what I’M doing is way more important than homework. That means you helping me is also more important than homework. Sabrina is really good at schoolwork, so it only makes sense she takes care of that so we don’t have to waste valuable time.”

Marinette stopped scrubbing again, Chloés comment bringing a memory to the surface. She had suspected Sabrina didn’t know about Chloés double life, but never had it confirmed before now.

“So, back when the three of use had that physics assignment together and you couldn’t make it, was that because…?”

Chloé paused briefly in her lip gloss application before answering “Yep,” and resuming.

“So Sabrina doesn’t know?”

Chloé looked at Marinette incredulously through the mirror. “Of course not! I can’t trust just anyone with this, and she cracks way too easily under pressure.”

Harsh, but Marinette couldn’t disagree.

The shirt was as clean as it was ever going to get, and Marinette handed the tide pen back to Chloé with a quiet ‘thank you’ before moving past her to the air dryer to try and dry out her shirt while Chloé put her make up away.

“I’m still going to do my own homework, but if you’re willing to wait until at least seven I can bring the macaroons,” Marinette offered, raising her voice to be heard over the dryer. Chloé heaved a great sigh, but nodded.

“Fine. I’ll give you until seven o’clock, but you’d better not flake out on me again like you did yesterday.”

“I got chased by wild animals and locked in a cage!”

“No excuses.”

With that, Chloé strutted out of the bathroom, swinging the doors open wide. Marinette tried fo follow and let out an aborted yelp as the door nearly swung shut in her face.

“Oh come on!” Marinette exclaimed before exiting as well.

For several seconds, the bathroom was perfectly quiet and still. Slowly, the bathroom stall at the far end opened, and teary eyed Sabrina hesitantly stepped out.

“I’m…I’m not important?” She asked quietly. “I’m not as important as _Marinette_?”

~*~*~*~*~*~

True to her word, when Marinette exited her parents bakery a few minutes before seven, pink cardboard box in hand, she found Chloé standing a short ways away scrolling through her phone as she waited.

“Wow, you ARE capable of being punctual on occasion,” the heiress noted. Marinette clenched her jaw, but the irritation was swiftly replaced by mild confusion when Chloé held out several bills between two fingers.

“Uhh…?”

“For the macaroons, duh,” Chloé explained irritably, dropping the bills on top of the box. Marinette sifted through the cash and felt her eyes bug out as she realized just how much money her classmate just threw at her.

“They’re just MACAROONS!” She exclaimed. “I can’t take this much!”

Chloé blinked at her. “Why not?”

Marinette gestured widely with one hand. “Because! No box of cookies is worth this much!! Did you think we made them out of gold dust or something?!”

The blonde continued staring at her, as if she was speaking an alien language. It slowly dawned on Marinette that Chloé wasn’t trying to show off how rich she was, she just genuinely didn’t know how much ‘a box of cookies’ would cost and apparently decided to guess high.

Somehow, learning that Chloé didn’t understand the value of a euro was more surprising than it should have been.

Sighing, the pig tailed girl gathered most of bills in one hand and thrust them back at Chloé. “Just take this back. I love my dad to pieces, but even I wouldn’t say his macaroons are worth THIS much.”

Chloé frowned and pushed the fistful of cash back towards Marinette. “Uh uh, I am not having this conversation again. Just think of this as an advance on future goodies you bring and you let me know once we’re used this up, alright?”

A part of Marinette wanted to continue to argue, but the pragmatic part of her recognized a loosing battle. Hesitantly, Marinette accepted defeat and pocketed the cash.

Satisfied that Marinette wasn’t going to argue anymore, Chloé held up her summoned Soul Gem in her left hand and her cell phone with a news article pulled up in her right.

“Now, if you’re done being ridiculous, some bozo got drunk and ran over three pedestrians earlier today not too far from here. It looks promising, I want to check it out for Witch activity.”

Marinette gasped quietly, but said nothing. She _knew_ Ladybug couldn’t possibly be everywhere and save everyone, but it was still gut punching to hear about such an awful accident she knew Ladybug could have prevented if she had only been there, and worse to hear it talked about so casually, so dismissively, as if those three lives didn’t _matter_.

But, that was the nature of the beast Chloé faced everyday. Maybe that’s why she made a good Magical Girl - she could compartmentalize and face the terrible events the Witches created and not be dragged down by the sadness of it all.

Little wonder Chloé never told Sabrina about this.

Chloés lead turned out to be a bust, and after nearly an hour of walking around fruitlessly Marinette suggested they take a break at a small coffee shop. While Chloé wasn’t opposed to taking a break, she was…reluctant to stop at a hole-in-the-wall establishment, to put it politely. She finally relented when Marinette pointed out that A) this was the only decent rest stop in sight, and B) she was still holding the coveted macaroons.

Sitting at the small table inside, Chloé looked very cross as she munched on violet colored treats while Marinette serenely sipped her hot chocolate.

It wasn’t until a young musician took a seat on a stool in the far corner and started playing his guitar that Chloé seemed to relax in the space. Tension released from her shoulders, her angry expression smoothed out, and she chewed the macaroons more slowly to savor the taste.

“You like the music?” Marientte asked, mildly surprised. Chloé listened to the guitar playing for a moment of careful consideration before shrugging.

“I’m not sure I would buy it, but it’s nice for ambience and I can appreciate live music,” she said.

The peaceful atmosphere was sadly killed when another patron, a young man seated closer to the guitarist, started heckling the young musician, making fun of everything from his clothes to his hair and laughing like a braying donkey at his own jokes, apparently trying to impress his date. Going from how she was apparently trying to disappear into her sweater, it wasn’t working.

The guitarist continued to play, displaying an impressive level of patience. Marinette glared at the man and started to push away from the table to stand, but then the man said “And what’s with the snore-fest music, kid? You actually know how play that thing, or do you just strum it for the fake angsty artist look? Can’t even fake it good enough to get any chicks!”

And Chloé beat her to the punch.

The blonde sharply stood, her chair scrapping against the floor as it was pushed back. Silently she pulled out a few euros, approached another occupied table, threw the cash on the table and took the bewildered patrons half empty glass of ice tea.

Without saying a word, without a change in expression, she marched to the man who was still too busy heckling the poor guitarist to notice her approach.

Up until Chloé dumped the ice tea over his head.

The guitarist finally stopped playing in naked shock. Marinette could almost hear a record scratch effect.

“What the HELL?!” The heckler cried, recoiling away. “Are you insane??”

Chloé just stood there, stoney faced, and gave a deadpanned “Whoops. My hand slipped.”

Marinette quickly hurried to stand by Chloé as the man stood, towering over the young teenagers. The musician and the date were looking increasingly alarmed, and the former swiftly put his guitar down while the latter stood and hovered nervously by the mans shoulder.

Chloé, however, merely lifted her chin and managed to look down on the red-faced man in spite of him standing nearly a foot taller than her, wordlessly _daring_ him to say something.

Fortunately any confrontation was quickly nipped as the manager hurried over. Unfortunately…

“Why am **I** the one who got kicked out when that jerk was the one who started it?!” Chloé ranted, stomping down the sidewalk and gesturing wildly. “Didn’t he realize who I am? My daddy could buy out his filthy little peasant shop and fire him by morning!”

“If you didn’t want to get kicked out, you probably shouldn’t have said that to the managers face,” Marinette commented mildly, as she trailed after the infuriated heiress. “Besides, it’s not like the jerk didn’t get kicked out too,” she added.

“Only AFTER I already this that waste-of-space managers job and stopped him! This is ridiculous, utterly ridiculous!”

Marinette chuckled at the blondes dramatics. Getting kicked out had been horribly embarrassing at the time, but since she was unlikely to see anyone from the shop ever again it was easier to already find the humor in it.

But she sobered quickly as she replayed the inciting incident in her head again. She sped up to match Chloé and tried to catch her eye.

“Why did you do that anyway?” Marinette asked. “I’d expect you to say something snarky and mean, but I didn’t expect you to be so confrontational with a stranger. What it just because he annoyed you?”

Chloé opened her mouth wide, but stopped and slowed her steps, forcing Marinette to slow as well to match her new pace. When Chloé did answer, it wasn’t with any of the dramatics of her righteous anger or bruised ego.

“Kind of, but not just that. Sure he was annoying, but I think the thing that really bothered me was when he started attacking that boys. Make fun of his clothes or hair? That’s superficial stuff. His music though? That boy was putting himself out there by sharing it, and seeing that get attacked just pissed me off.”

“Why did that make you so angry?” Marinette pressed gently, eyebrows raising at this new side of Chloé she was learning about. The taller girl held up a hand and spun it around at the wrist as she tried to find the words.

“See, it’s…there’s lots of things people can be talented in, but only a few can be exceptional in. Like…um…oh! Kims really good and sports, and he’s really talented at it. But only a few people are good enough to be _exceptional_ , and only the exceptional few get to do it professionally, and Kims probably not one of them. Then there’s someone like Max. He’s really smart and talented with math and science, and he can prove he’s exceptional with test scores and science builds and stuff. Did you know he’s working on an actual AI robot? If it works, that’ll prove he’s exceptional. You know what I mean?”

“I’m following you so far, but what does this have to do with Guitar Boy?” Marientte asked. Chloé pressed her lips together and furrowed her brow in a frown as she considered her next point.

“You know how in sports everyone is playing by the same rules, and in math everyone is using the same formulas? That’s how you get judged if you’re exceptional or not. But…for anyone who’s _creating_ something, it’s different. They’re expressing their unique voice, so you can’t truly compare them with anyone else. Music, drawing, dancing, sculpting, painting, heck, even cooking and fashion count because someone created it to express something.

“Sure, if they’re crap at it they should be called out on it, which is why it’s good for parents destroy crap drawings like I said before. But after they get to a certain skill level, after they’ve perfected their technique, they get to decide what it means to be exceptional. Because it’s _their_ voice, and no one else can tell them what it’s supposed to be.

“I just…I really admire people who can do that, even if I don’t actually say it.”

Marinette stared at Chloé in wide-eyed wonder, a warmth filling her chest at the implications of what the other girl just revealed. Chloé glanced over, then quickly looked away in embarrassment.

“So, yeah, that’s why the heckler pissed me off.” She finished awkwardly. Marinette smiled warmly.

“Thank you for sharing that with me,” shesaid sincerely. Chloé just ‘hmphed’ and kept her eyes averted.

It was tempting to leave it at that, but there was a particular point she couldn’t help but notice during Chloés confession.

“It sounds like being exceptional is important to you,” Marientte said slowly. Chloé shrugged.

“If you’re not exceptional, what’s the point?” She asked, clearly rhetorical. “If you’re not exceptional, people might still like you anyway, or they might not. But If you _are_ exceptional, they’ll always love you, and who doesn’t want that?”

Marinette felt her heart drop as she looked at Chloé with new eyes. Past behavior she once saw as arrogant narcissism now looked like a paper thin shield she wrapped herself in daily. Marinette could only wonder what could have possibly made Chloé think that was normal.

Part of Marientte wanted to try pushing a little more, but Chloé was already picking up the pace to pull ahead and pulling her Soul Gem back out, signaling she was done with the conversation.

They did talk occasionally over the next hour or so, but only on simple, safe things until Chloé escorted Marinette home.

Neither of them ever noticed the dark haired girl on the rooftops, watching them as the entered and left the coffee shop.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Fortunately Hawkmoth seemed to be taking a bit of a break, because the next week and a half passed with only one akuma showing up on Saturday, which was quite surprising. Marientte was half ready to face Tea Man, an akuma seeking revenge on Chloé by trying to drown her in overpriced beverages, but no, she got Simon Says instead.

Maybe Hawkmoth had higher standards than Marinette gave him credit for.

Granted, Ladybug was still kept busy with afternoon patrols, rescues, and other hero business big and small (look, that kitten stuck in the tree was REALLY cute, alright?!), and that’s not even getting her school work, time with Alya and personal projects she had going on, but at least Marinettes evening patrols with Chloé were largely uninterrupted.

The two fell into a routine: Chloé would pick up Marinette at her home at 7pm each evening, the latter with a new goodie box (subtracted from a carefully tracked ledger kept in her room of course). Chloé had usually spent the day combing through news reports for promising Witch activity in ‘her’ territory, and if she found anything they’d patrol on the way there, then circle back to the Dupain-Cheng bakery, usually spending at least a couple of hours out.

It’s not possible for two people to spend so much time together without learning more about each other, and the same held true for these two girls.

~*~*~*~*~*~

“So, can I ask where the Ladybug costume came from?” Marinette asked as the pair walked side by side. “I’ve looked online, but I’ve never found anything as high quality as what you have. Um, I mean, in Lady Wifi’s video it looked pretty high quality.”

Chloé visibly preened. “That’s because I had it specially made and custom fitted just for me, along with the yo yo. I’m not Ladybugs number one fan for nothing.”

Marinette had to bite the inside of her cheek to keep from grinning. “I’m sure she would admire your dedication. Honestly I’m a little jealous, the best costume I had was the murdered bride costume I made for Halloween a couple years ago.”

“That pile of rags, seriously? All you did was slash up a white dress and sprinkle red dye on it, you can do way better than that.”

“I feel like I should be offended, but that’s honestly ten times nicer than what you said when you first saw it _andwaitasecond_.”

Chloé raised an eyebrow at a wide eyed Marinette, who looked as if she’d just been struck by lightening. “What it is now?”

“You like to dress up as Ladybug,” Marinette said slowly, smiling. “You like to cosplay. Magical Girl uniforms are unique for each girl, so they have to be based on their preferences.”

“Yes….” Chloé said slowly, clearly confused. “Where are you going with this?”

Slowly, Marinette smile grew until it was ear to hear. “I thought it was just coincidence before, but did you deliberately base your Magical Girl uniform on _Sailor Moon_?”

Chloé froze in sheer horror.

She swiftly turned heel and power walked away across the street. “Oh look, I think there’s a Familiar WAY OVER THERE! Better hurry before we loose it!”

“Ah c’mon Chloé, no need to be embarrassed!” Marinette called out as she followed, laughter in her voice.

And so Marinette learned that, in spite of the high class rich girl image she tried to cultivate, Chloé couldn’t hide that she was secretly a weeb.

~*~*~*~*~*~

The girls had an unspoken agreement that, if they stopped for food during their patrol, they’d take turns picking where to go. Tonight was Marinettes turn, and since they were in a part of Paris she didn’t visit often she took the opportunity to try an Indian restaurant she’d heard good things about but didn’t have the chance to visit.

“I didn’t think you were the type to enjoy spicy foods,” Chloé admitted as the waiter delivered their meal. “I’d peg you more for liking sweets, what with the bakery and all.”

Marinette shrugged as she took a piece of naan bread and scooped some rice and curry in it. “Mostly I wanted to try something new. My mom prefers cooking rather than eating out, so I don’t usually get to try stuff like this unless I go out on my own.”

She took a bite of her food, chewed thoughtfully, and swallowed.

“Should have asked for it to be a little spicer though,” she admitted. Chloé held a fork out inquisitively, and when Marinette gave a nod she took a bit of Marinettes curry to taste herself.

Her eyes instantly went wide and face red, already starting to sweat. Marinette could almost see the steam shooting out her ears. Pride forced Chloé to swallow it down, but she immediately chugged down half her mango lassi to quell the heat.

“How are you not dying??” Chloé asked in a raspy voice, blinking back tears. Marinette shrugged.

“My moms Chinese,” she said simply

And so Chloé learned that Marinettes spice tolerance should not be underestimated just because her family owns a bakery.

~*~*~*~*~*~

“What did I say about flaking out on me?” Chloé asked irritably over the phone. Marinette couldn’t help but cringe.

“Technically I haven’t actually flaked on y-MANON PUT THAT DOWN! I’M SERIOUS! Sorry, um, anyway, Manons mom should be back to pick her up before seven, but she’s been late before and I wanted to give you a heads up.”

“And you couldn’t have just told her ‘no’, or said you busy?” Chloé asked acidly. Okay, Marinette understood why she was annoyed, but she was starting to feel frustrated with Chloé taking it out on her.

“Look, I told her I had plans, but I had to admit they weren’t until seven and she promised she’d pick Manon up before then. I couldn’t come up with any more excuses, so here we are.” 

“You could have still said no!” Chloé shot back. “You never had any problem telling ME ‘no’, why is this different?”

“Well, we only started getting along pretty recently, so it wasn’t like I felt obligated to do you any favors before.” Marinette retorted, irritation rising. “Nadja’s a working mom and she needs help sometimes, this is the least I can do. And blaming me isn’t going to change anything now anyway, so I’d appreciate it you’d give me a break!”

Chloé sighed in disgust. “I swear to God, Dupain-Cheng, if I get there and that kid is still there, I’m locking her in a closet until we get back so she can’t get in any trouble.”

“You can’t lock children in closets Chloé!” Marinette exclaimed in exasperation.

“Sure you - oh. Yeah, my mom had a walk in so I was fine, but you’re poor so your closet is probably like the size of a postage stamp. Do you have like a guest room or something you can throw her in? Please tell me her mom left some toys or book or something we can toss in too.”

Marinette promptly stopped trying to catch Manon as her brain tried to make sense of what she just heard.

“Dupain-Cheng? You still there?”

Marinette briefly shook her head to snap back to reality. “Sorry, sorry. It just that it _sounded_ like you just said your mom used to lock you in a closet, but I don’t think I heard that right.”

“Whatever Harry Potter crap it is you’re imagining, stop it, it wasn’t that dramatic,” Chloé said, and Marinette could almost hear the eye roll in her voice. “My moms closet was probably bigger than your entire bedroom. I had a juice box and a coloring book, and the closet was pretty warm so I usually just took a nap, I was _fine_.”

Marinette had completely stopped chasing after Manon, too stunned by what she was hearing to move. “That’s…why would…why??”

“Duh, because I was a little kid and she had more important stuff to deal with. She only did it when the nanny called in sick and she wanted to out, so it’s not like it happened all the time. What was she supposed to do, take a hyper little kid with her while she went shopping?”

 _‘Yes!’_ Marinette wanted to scream. _‘Yes, because that’s that’s what my mom did! Because that’s what a responsible parent is supposed to do!!’_

“How…long would she leave you there?”she asked instead.

Chloé made a sound as if she were saying ‘I don’t know’ with only the vowels. “Usually just for the afternoon. There was one time she forgot about me and I was in the closet all day, which sucked, but it was only the once.”

Marinette stood stone still in the living room, speechless.

“Anyway, I’m still coming over at seven, and if the little hellion is still there we’re decide what to do then,” Chloé concluded before hanging up unceremoniously.

Marinette pulled her phone away from her ear and just stared at it, heedless of the little girl now tugging at her arm for attention, to preoccupied with the image of another little girl, all alone, locked in a stuffy closet for hours on end because her mother couldn’t be bothered.

And so Chloé learned that Marinettes sense of duty made it a struggle to stand up to people she liked as opposed to people she despised, while Marinette gained a deeper understanding of why Chloé found it so difficult to emphasize with people.

~*~*~*~*~*~

One evening, as they wandered the edges of Chloés established territory, they heard energetic music drifting through the air a short ways away. Curious, and not making any progress anyway, the girls followed the music to an open plaza where a large crowd of people were salsa dancing.

“What in the world.” Was Chloés flat reaction. Marinette, slowly smiled as an idea took hold.

“We are totally joining in.”

Chloé whipped her head around. “What?? NO! Absolutely not!”

“Absolutely yes,” Marinette countered, channeling Alya as she tugged Chloé towards the dancing crowd. Chloé attempted to resist, but without magically enhanced strengthen the Marinette proved to be the stronger of the pair in spite of her height disadvantage.

“WHY would you think I’d participate in a…a…peasant festival in a million hears?!” Chloé demanded as she was pulled ever closer.

Marinette did have a purpose, she wasn’t one for spontaneity the way Alya or Chat were, but Chloé was a prideful girl and the truth would not be enough to get her dancing. So Marinette defaulted to the most effective tactic she could draw upon: flattery.

“So you can show everyone how to REALLY dance, of course!” She answered brightly. “You’ve had how many years in dance lessons? Everyone here is an amateur, this will be a piece of cake for you!”

“I learned ballet! This is salsa!” Chloé shot back, but in spite of her words she was starting to look intrigued.

“Doesn’t matter,” Marinette insisted. “Those instincts are in your muscles, in every move you every make. You have body awareness, grace, and a sense of rhythm to make you a great dancer anywhere. So why not show it off a little?”

Chloé wasn’t physically resisting anymore, and from the look of intense thought she was holding a fierce internal debate.

“It would be cruel to deny anyone here the chance to see my glory,” she eventually relented. Marinette beamed at her, and pulled her into the crowd with no more resistance.

It took a bit of watching the people around them, two body bumps and one set of stepped on toes, but the pair found their rhythm and danced a simple step as partners, coming together and apart as they followed the lively music. Marinette laughed off the missteps, and Chloé laughed off the bumps.

For a moment, she wasn’t a Magical Girl shouldering a secret burden of keeping Paris safe from Witches almost all on her own, and she wasn’t the Mayors daughter shielding herself with arrogant superiority. She was a teenage girl who was laughing night now because she was having silly fun.

After watching for days as Chloé became more stressed and more snappish the longer they went without finding a Witch, in class and out, Marinette was intensely relieved to see that burden lifted even for a short while.

Then Chloé spun Marinette out, Marinette started to twirl, and stopped cold.

Amongst the swirling dancers dressed in bright colors and smile, stepping to and fro with their partners in the beat, standing there still and silent was Evangeline.

Everything seemed to slow down, the dancers moving at a crawl, the people gently swirling to and like ripples in a pond between two still stones. Everything faded away, music muted, colors dulled, only Evangeline in red and white standing in bright contrast as she stood less than twenty feet away and watched Marinette and _smiled_.

A dancer stopped between them, breaking the line of sight and the spell broke too.

Sounds and color came rushing back, and Marinette was spinning back around to find Chloé. In the brief time Marinette was distracted, the blonde had already found another dance partner in a teen boy, her carefree smile and joyful movements now jarring and out of place to Marinette.

The pig-tailed girl roughly grabbed Chloés arm, arresting her movements, and was quick to interrupt her rising protest.

“She’s here.”

Chloé stared blankly for a moment before her eyes went wide in realization. She immediately abandoned her confused dance partner to lead Marinette out of the crowd. Marinette spun her head this way and that, but she had lost sight of the rogue Magical Girl girl.

Their patrol was cut short that day. For the first time, Chloé called her family’s limo to pick them up and take them home, taking the long way around to drop off Marinette first. Tikki gently talked Marinette through her rising anxiety attack, soothing and calming her until she was able to relax enough to fall into a fitful sleep.

She watched over her Chosen for several long moments, until her breathing evened out with deep sleep. Her soft expression hardened, and she zipped out and through the window.

She found Kyubey on the edge of the Le Grand hotel rooftop, peacefully gazing up at the stars.

“It’s been a long time since you’ve willingly approached me,” he commented, keeping his eyes skyward as Tikki flew near. “To what do I owe the honor?”

“Don’t bother pretending you don’t know why I’m here.” Tikki said sharply, hovering in front of the white and red creature. “Why haven’t you done anything about Evangeline?”

Kyubey finally lowered his head to meet Tikkis eyes.

“What do you expect me to do?” He asked, sounding genuinely curious. “I don’t control them, and she’s still hunting Witches and gathering Grief Seeds as she’s contractually obligated to do. Anything she does on her own time is her own business.”

“You expect to accept that when she’s ATTACKED and THREATENED **MY CHOSEN!** ” Tikki burst out furiously. “She’s only doing it because she thinks Marinette is a potential Magical Girl, why haven’t you said anything?!”

“I already told her that Marinette will not become a Magical Girl,” Kyubey answered calmly, not even blinking in the face of the kwamis anger. “Do you expect me to tell her that it’s impossible because she’s already Ladybug?”

“I _expect_ you to make it clearer.” Tikki snarled. “We both know there’s a world of difference between ‘will not’ and ‘can not’, and Evangeline knows it too. Don’t think I didn’t notice you told Evangeline that Marinette ‘will not’ become a Magical Girl. That’s the entire reason Evangeline thinks Marinette is still a potential threat!”

“If you noticed that long ago, you took a long time to confront me about it,” Kyubey pointed out mildly. Tikki glowered at him.

“As if I was going to leave my Chosen vulnerable before I was confident that Evangeline wasn’t going to attack us at home. When I didn’t see her again, I thought that you cleared things up with her and Marinette was safe. Obviously I was wrong if she’s still hunting us down. So here’s what you’re going to do.”

Tikki came in closer until she was a hairs breadth away from Kyubeys face.

“You are going to talk to Evangeline. You are going to make it explicitly clear that Marinette can not back a contract with you, and that will never, ever change. And you are going to make sure she understands that if she so much as breaths funny in Marinettes direction, _there will be consequences,_ the Accord be damned.”

For a long, tense moment, the two immortals stared each other down, one radiating motherly protective fury, the other as cold and expressionless as a statue.

Kyubey did not move back, and he did not break eye contact. But he was the first to speak.

“Your demand is fair. I will speak to Evangeline about it. It will be difficult to convince her when I cannot tell her why, but I will find a way. You’re aware, of course, this does not extend to Chloe.”

Tikki finally floated back, still angry but marginally calmer. “I know. But we will protect her for as long as we are able.”

With that she flew up and curved backwards in an arch to head back the way she came, as if she couldn’t stand to be around Kyubey any longer. He watched her go until she swiftly became an invisible speck in the night, then looked down at Chloés balcony below him.

“I suppose it’s been long enough,” he mused. “Marinette doesn’t need the threat of Evangeline attacking to stay close to Chloé anymore.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Adrien POV section was inspired by a comment made by Smiling_Seshat back on Chapter 5. It made realize I had been neglecting Adrien a bit in this story, and I had to start treating him as a character with agency rather than just a plot device. So I added his section in so we can get a bit of his perspective on things. 
> 
> Chloés admiration of artists and creators comes from the fact that the two boys I most commonly see her paired are Nathaniel and Luka (does she get paired with ANY other boys?). Part of the appeal, I think, is because Chloé would do well with someone chill enough to not get riled up by her dramatics but with enough backbone to establish boundaries. But I like to imagine she’s attracted to artistic souls in general, so this was my attempt to justify that. 
> 
> This also works for Chlonette fans. :)
> 
> The spice thing was made up entirely because I wanted Chloé to learn something unexpected and innocent about Marinette, and I couldn’t think of anything in canon I wouldn’t reasonably expect her to already know or at least suspect.
> 
> I’m aware that China is a huge country with a wide range of cuisines, and not so one note that anyone can call them all spicy. But there are provinces known for spicy food, and when it gets spicy HOO BOY does it get spicy!
> 
> The ‘Chloés mom locked Chloé in a closet as a child because she doesn’t want to deal with her’ thing has been a part of my head canon of Chloés mom since season one. Again, I’m trying to portray Audreys abuse as somewhat grounded and something Chloe can normalize and justify to herself, rather than cartoonishly over the top (ironically).
> 
> The giant group salsa dance was lifted almost wholesale from an actual experience I had in Paris a couple years ago! Except I didn’t actually join in. I seriously considered imbedding a clip I took, 'this is what the girls saw!', except A) I couldn't find the original I took, and B) I wouldn't know how to anyway. -_-


	8. Souls

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> From here on out we’re getting into major spoiler territory for PMMM. On the slim chance I have any readers here for MB who aren’t familiar with PMMM, turn back now if you have any plans to watch PMMM on your own. I highly recommend it, it’s a fantastic and subversive anime, it’s on Netflix and it’s only 12 episodes long. I recommend you don’t binge watch it though, it’s a show that deserves to be savored 1-2 episodes at a time.
> 
> If you’re already familiar with PMMM, or don’t care about spoilers…enjoy!

The evening started like any other, Marinette exiting the shop with a box of pain au chocolat and Chloé waiting a little further down the sidewalk. This time, however, she was frowning quite hard as she read what was on her phone.

“Everything alright?” Marinette asked as she approached. Chloé didn’t even bother looking up from her phone as she answered.

“The police just discovered what’s probably a murder-suicide that happened a few hours ago. The guy and his long time girlfriend just broke up, so obviously he was under a lot of stress, but he never displayed violent tendencies before and he didn’t have a history of depression either. That pretty much screams Witch activity. If we hurry, we might be able to catch the Witches trail before it grows cold.”

Marinette peered over Chloés shoulder to look at the new article on her phone. She grimaced when she saw the location listed.

“That’s pretty far from here,” she pointed out. “Way too far to walk. Is your driver going to take us?”

Chloé shook her head. “Daddy lets me do pretty much anything I want, but that doesn’t mean he never asks questions. It’s in Felicity’s old territory, so it’s not like I already had a habit of going out there. There aren’t any shops or entertainment in that area he’d believe I’d go to, and if I ask the driver to take me there’s too much of a chance it’ll get back to Daddy.”

Marinette hmm’d and gave Chloé a sidelong look.

“That only leaves one option, and I already know you’e going to hate it.” She said.

Chloés face pinched like she just bit into a lemon, but still gave a curt nod.

“We’re going to have to take the subway.”

~*~*~*~*~*~

If they weren’t on their way to track down a human-hunting invisible eldritch abomination starting at the site of a terrible tragedy, Marinette would have found Chloés sheer discomfort at being on a mostly empty train hilarious.

Naturally, the wealthy heiress refused to sit on any of the open seats like Marinette did. Instead she chose to stand and used a handkerchief to keep hold of the pole so she wouldn’t have to touch it directly. She used her free arm to hold her purse close as if she expected someone to try and pull it off her any second and glared around her as if the train itself personally offended her.

Okay, it was a little funny, but Marinette wasn’t going to say anything.

“You must have realized you were going to have to take the subway eventually, what with your, um, after school job,” Marinette said from her seat directly in front of the blonde. Chloé shot her a withering look.

“I WAS hoping to make it through the year without having to,” she said. “I did NOT sign up to be packed like a sardine can with the rabble of Paris!”

Marinette glance about the sparsely populated train car before looking flatly back at Chloé. “You’ve never actually _seen_ a can of sardines before, have you?”

“Why would I? Sardines are disgusting!”

“No argument there. Why just a year though? I’d’ve figured you’d say ‘not ever’, did you plan to ride the train on day three sixty six to celebrate?”

The blonde scoffed. “Of course not, don’t be ridiculous. I was only ever going to do this job for one year anyway. I’m already planning the party I’ll throw on my last day.”

Marinette eye brows raised in surprise. She leaned forward and lowered her voice slightly, not a whisper but quiet enough to not easily be overheard.

“You can quit?” She asked. “That’s allowed? Did you ask Kyubey?”

Chloé shrugged. “Kyubey said most girls last about four or five months on average, so a year is more than generous. Technically I’ll always be a Magical Girl because I’ll always have my gem, but if you don’t care about Grief Seeds there isn’t much incentive to keep fighting. Frankly I’ve never gotten a chance to enjoy the perks because of how frugal I’ve had to be with my magic and Grief Seeds, and I would LOVE to drop the stress of it all.”

Marinette tilted her head. “What about your wish?”

Chloé was quiet for a long moment.

“Okay, I get to enjoy the perks of my wish,” she corrected. “But my wish won’t get reversed because I quit. I just figured a year of service would be fair compensation for what I got. Hopefully Kyubey will have contracted some new Magical Girls by then and I’ll be able to retire with a clear conscience. ”

Chloé then shot Marinette a sharp look. “And before you ask, no I’m not going to tell you what I wished for.”

Marientte held her hands up. “I wasn’t going to, I promise.”

Admittedly she was a little hurt that Chloé still didn’t trust her enough to reveal her wish, but then again Marinette had no idea how personal it was. Chloé was under no obligation to tell her, and she had no right to push her into sharing if she didn’t want to.

It wasn’t like she wasn’t keeping secrets of her own, after all.

Between the subway and subsequent walk, it took a little over forty minutes for the pair to make it to the apartment building where the crime took place, the now empty bakery box being tossed along the way. Stopping in front of the building, Chloé summoned her Soul Gem and stared intensely into it while Marinette waited besides her.

The gem began to slowly flashed, and a smile spread across the Magical Girls face.

“Gotcha.”

She took off running down the street, Marinette on her heels.

Chloé eventually slowed to a jog, but she never lifted her eyes from her gem, following cues only she could understand. Several times Marinette had to pull her to the side to avoid crashing into a pedestrian or pull her back from running into a busy road. Chloé was heedless of it all, absorbed completely in her Soul Gem.

Until Marinette grabbed her by the neck of her sweater and pulled her back.

Chloé snapped hear head up to realize she was standing with one foot in the air…right above the steps going down into the subway again that she nearly went tumbling down. She quickly scuttled back a step.

Marinette peered around her to read the subway sign above the entry way to see where they were.

“At least it's not the same station we came in on, THAT would have been annoying,” she commented as she started down the stairs. She was half way down before she realized her companion wasn’t following.

She half turned to look back up, only to find Chloé staring intensely down the stairs, one hand fisted against her chest, shoulders tense, expression…fearful?

“Chloé?” Marinette called up, turning all the way to face her. “Is everything okay?”

A shiver seemed to pass over the blonde, and a mask of haughty confidence slid over her.

“Fine! Everything is fine!” She answered curtly, marching down the steps and very nearly bumping against Marinette as she passed.

The platform was mostly empty at this odd time of day when students were already home but most adults were still working. Chloé stopped in the middle of the platform, deeply concentrating on her flashing gem. Marientte watched her, until a bit of movement further down the platform caught her eye.

It was a teen boy, a vaguely familiar one, stumbling forward. As she watched him, he shambled past the safety line as the incoming train roared even louder, and only then with horrifying crystal clarity did Marinette realize what he was about to do.

“NO!” She cried, reaching to her hip for a non-existent yo-yo.

Chloé moved forward at the same time, body encased in shimmering yellow light for a brief moment as she transformed. Her step forward became a flying launch into the air as she covered the distance to the boy in less than a second, grabbing him by the back of his sweatshirt just as he was about to throw himself off the platform and into the oncoming train.

In the same smooth motion she spun around to pull him back away from the edge and into her arms just as the train rushed by, missing the boys head by a hair, cradling his limp form against herself.

She carefully lowered him to the ground, Marinette was already rushing over as well.

“Is he alright?!” She asked, sliding down to her knees besides him.

“He’s fine, he’s just passed out,” Chloé assured her. “He’ll recover after the Witch is defeated. Hold on a sec.”

She looped an arm under his knees and, keeping her other arm wrapped around his shoulders, effortlessly lifted the taller boy in her arms and carried him to the nearest wall. She hastily set him down and leaned him up against the wall, then plopped down next to him just as the train came to a stop and opened it’s doors. Taking the hint Marinette swiftly came over to sit on his other side. It helped to keep him propped up, but more importantly three teens sitting together against a wall was less conspicuous than one passed out teen alone.

As the train riders disembarked, none of them gave the trio more than a passing glance.

After a minute or two, Marinette leaned forward slightly to talk to Chloé across the boy. “Out of curiosity, what makes you so sure he did this because of a Witch? It’s a pretty fair guess, but we don’t know him, we don’t know his life.”

In answer, Chloé pointed to a mark on the side of the boys neck that Marinette hadn’t noticed before - an ornate star with ten points.

“See this? It’s a Witch’s Kiss.” Chloé explained. “Witches put them on their victims to control them. That time you got caught up in a Labyrinth by yourself? You probably had one on your neck until you broke free. Once we defeat this Witch, the kiss will disappear and he’ll be safe.”

She turned her attention to the unconscious boy slumped against her, scowling. “Hear that, dumb ass? Next time you’re feeling like shit, just take the damn butterfly. It’s a hell of a lot less troublesome!”

Marinettes eyebrows shot up, and not because of the vulgar language.

The train was pulling away and the passengers had cleared out, leaving the platform empty again. Chloé, having never dropped her transformation, stood and quickly brushed off the back of her skirt before strutting away down to the long tunnel wall perpendicular to where the trio sat against.

Marinette, after making sure the boy was propped up steady enough to not fall over without support, got up and followed after the Magical Girl.

Chloé didn’t seem to notice her as she stopped at a particular point, and held out her hand with fingers splayed out. The portal opened, shimmering and bright, the same ten pointed star prominent in the center.

Almost without thinking, Chloé grabbed Marinettes hand and led her into the Labyrinth.

This Labyrinth was characterized by purple-black spires that curved high above them and ended in sharp points, contrasting against a red sky. Chloé dropped Marinettes hand and immediately started running, trusting the shorter girl to keep pace.

It was odd how familiar Witches and Labyrinths had started to become for Marinette. Each one was different, but the otherworldly sensation of discomfort they all shared gave an odd sense of familiarity.

The center wasn’t as visually distinct as past Labyrinths, only made obvious by the presence of the Witch who appeared like a pitch-black giant daddy long legs with ten legs, scuttling across the tops of the spires as it passed over their heads.

Chloé grinned in anticipation, and took off with a flying leap.

It was a dazzling display of flying lights as Chloé flew literal circles around the Witch, peppering it with her rings and even weaving through the razor sharp legs as the Witch tried to swipe at her with it’s limbs. There was a heart-stopping moment when the Witch shot a web-like substance that hit Chloé dead on and trapped her against one of the spires, but Chloé was able to cut herself free and escape before the Witch could impale her on the end of its leg.

In less than a minute the fight ended with a dramatic finishing blow from Chloé as she dive bombed the Witch from above, heel first, with enough force to cleave the Witch in half. The apparition faded with a final scream and Chloé landed by Marinette as the Labyrinth faded into nothing. Chloé gave a self satisfied nod as she finally dropped her transformation.

“God I love having high heels,” she declared.

“I’ve been meaning to ask, how come your skirt never flies up no matter how much you zip around?” Marinette asked.

“It’s a magic skirt,” Chloé answered with a straight face. Marinette nodded in understanding.

“I don’t know why I ever expected a different answer.”

A soft groaning reminded the pair of the Witches almost-victim. Marinette hurried back to his side while Chloé searched for the dropped Grief Seed.

“Are you alright? How are you feeling?” Marinette asked, kneeling in front of him. The boy held his head, groaning and squeezing his eyes shut as if warding off a head ache.

“I…think so,” he said slowly. “My head just feels kinda fuzzy, what was I…”

The boy trailed off as he opened his eyes, which widened with dawning horror as he looked around himself and realized where he was.

“…what was I…oh my God, what was I _doing_? _Why_ _did I try to-_?!”

Marinette grabbed the boy by either side of his face and forced him to look at her.

“It’s okay, you’re okay now, it’s going to be alright,” Marinette hurried to assure him, kindly but firmly. “Just breathe with me, okay? Breathe in slowly through your nose for one, two, three, four five, and hold it. Now breathe out through the mouth slowly for one, two, three, four, five. There you go.”

Marinette guided him through breathing a few more rounds, and at the end of it he was still shaken and trembling but he wasn’t on the verge of a panic attack anymore.

“I…I think I’m okay now,” he said. He gave Marinette a shaky smile. “Thank you.”

Marinette smiled kindly, up until Chloé scoffed in annoyance from behind her.

“We don’t have time for a therapy session, Dupain-Cheng,” she said, and Marinette could just imagine her standing right behind her, arms crossed and hip jutted out.

“Not the time Chloé,” Marinette said lowly, turning her head slightly toward the other girl

Shakily the boy climbed to his feet, using the wall behind him to leverage himself up, Marinette keeping a steadying hold on his arm.

“Are you going to be able to make it home?” She asked gently.

The boy nodded, “Yeah, yeah, I’ll be fine. I just need to…remember where I parked my bike, it’s kinda hard to remember what I was doing. Just…thank you for your help.”

“All she did was breath with you, that’s not worth thanking her over,” Chloé cut in acidly.

Marinette clenched her jaw, the old familiar anger and irritation she’d long associated with the school bully’s presence rising again, but as she watched the boy leave while keeping a careful eye on his gait to make sure he stayed steady she also kept those emotions down _because she couldn’t forget what Chloé said again._

When the boy had ascended the stairs and the girls were alone again, Marinette turned on her heel to face Chloé again.

“What was that you said before?” She demanded.

Chloé raised an eyebrow. “Are you going to tell me I should be nicer again? I’m not sorry for what I said, because I didn’t say anything wrong.”

Marinette shook her head. “I don’t mean about the breathing thing. I mean before that, before we went into the labyrinth. You said something about how that guy should just accept the butterfly next time. You meant he should have let himself be Akumitized, didn’t you?”

Chloé averted her eyes slightly. “I wasn’t serious about that. Hawkmoth can’t possibly be able to send a butterfly for everyone in Paris feeling awful, I know that guy probably didn’t get the option this time.”

“Sure, but the thing is you’ve said something that before,” Marinette said. “I forgot about it until now, but when Princess Fragrance had us trapped and I was mad at you for getting Rose Akumitized, you said that she was better off being Akumitized back then before she was targeted by something worse.”

Chloé still stood with crossed arms, but now she was more clearly looking past Marinette rather than at her. “I don’t remember that. I didn’t say that.”

Marinette didn’t let Chloés poor denial attempt deter her.

“And later on, after the fight with Evangeline, when we were on the rooftop…I kind of get now why you treated people the way you did before, but you never answered me why you didn’t change your behavior even a little, if only so you wouldn’t be targeted by Akumas so much.”

Chloé dropped her arms and moved to walk past Marinette towards the exit.

“We’ve wasted too much time, I’m tired and want to go home.”

But just as the taller girl passed, Marinette reached up a hand and caught it in the crook of her elbow.

It wasn’t enough force to stop her even at her weakest, but the feather light touch still managed to halt her. Chloé looked down at Marinette, and Marientte met her eye with nothing but concern and understanding.

“Felicity told me that there’s been fewer Witches in the past few months, and the down turn happened right about the same time Hawkmoth showed up. I don’t think Felicity ever thought of it as more than a coincidence…but you did, didn’t you?

“Chloé…have you deliberately been baiting people into being Akumitized, because of the Witches?”

The next train came roaring by, the wind of it’s passing gently blowing Chloés ponytail as the girls had their silent stare off.

After a long, pregnant moment, Chloé let her gaze drop. When she finally answered, it was quiet and sincere.

“Kyubey says Witches are born from misery and despair, and the more there is, the more Witches there are. Hawkmoth also needs negative emotions to exploit, but they don’t have to be as… _bad_ as what Witches need, as far as I can tell. So, you’ll probably be in danger of being Akumitized before you’re in danger of being targeted by a Witch.

“But if you _do_ get Akumitized? Your friends and family realize there was a problem, YOU realize you had a problem. You talk it out, you either realize it wasn’t as bad as you thought or you get the help you need. Some people even found it cathartic. There’s a chance to get _better_ The misery and despair they were generating is gone, and they’re not attractive to Witches anymore.”

Chloé raised one shoulder in a half shrug and looked up at Marinette through her lashes with a small, ironic smile.

“Kinda weird we have Hawkmoth to thank for starving the Witches out, huh?”

Marinette slowly smiled back.

“Very weird,” she agreed. “Let’s remember to give him a pat on the back after Ladybug and Chat Noir throw him in jail.”

Chloés smile widened into a smirk. Her eyes flitted past Marinette, and the smirk immediately dropped as she straightened and tensed.

“Get behind me right now,” she ordered.

Marinettes stomach turned to ice.

She hurried to stand behind Chloé, and facing the other way she could see what she already suspected had put the Magical Girl on edge:

Evangeline, slowly striding down the platform towards them as she sucked on a lollipop, looking as pleased as a cat that caught the canary.

“Awww, you’re gonna hurt my feelings!” She said cheerfully, grinning ear to ear as she waved her lollipop about. “You came all the way out here to MY turf, and you weren’t even going to say ‘hi’? Now that’s just rude!”

“This ISN’T your territory,” Chloé shot back, one arm coming up slightly as if to guard Marinette.

Evangeline barked out a laugh, still slowly approaching. “What, you gonna say this is still Felicity’s turf? I don’t think she’d mind me taking over this part, since she’s still hella dead. Which makes YOU trespassers.”

Marinette started to tug at the back of Chloés sweater, to guide her towards the exit just behind them.

“Chloé, we have to-”

She glanced back up the stairs to see if they were clear to run, only to stop when she found their exit blocked by a red diamond patterned barrier.

In that moment Marientte realized with horrifying clarity where they were - an enclosed, underground tube with blocked exits, and Chloé grounded.

Her reluctance to take the subway now made a new, terrible sense.

Evangeline game to a stop, just a few body lengths away.

_Chloé can’t fly down here she is hamstrung before the fight has even begun and Evangeline has all the advantage_

She gave her lollipop one last lick before casually tossing it to the side.

_She can’t escape she has to fight but Evangeline is stronger she just needs one good hit and Chloé can’t get away_

Chloés fists clenching, her whole form so tense it seemed like her bones would break under the force of it.

_The hammer will fall and crush bones and break limbs and there are no more tricks to play_ **_and Chloé can’t win this._ **

“WE’RE SORRY!”

Chloé nearly jumped out of her skin, but stayed she was and never took her eyes of Evangeline. The long haired girl, however, blinked owlishly at Marinette.

“What?”

Marinette came around to stand in front of Chloé, the blond too focused on Evangeline to stop her in time.

“I said, we’re sorry,” she repeated, dipping into a deferential bow. “We should have realized you would have claimed the territory closest to yours as your own. As an apology, we’ll give you the Grief Seed and leave in peace.”

_“Excuse me?”_ Chloé hissed behind her.

“And WHY exactly, should I let you go?” Evangeline asked, crossing her arms as she leaned backwards. Marientte raised up from her bow.

“Because if you fight, you might still loose. You have the advantage here, but Chloé is strong and fast and clever. There’s no guarantee she can’t beat you, even here. But if you let us go, everyone lives and you get a free Grief Seed. No risk, all reward.”

Evangeline didn’t answer, but her smile faded into a contemplative expression. Marinette held her gaze, unflinching but holding her breath and hoping the Magical Girl accepted the offer.

She received help from an unexpected source.

“I would encourage you to take the deal, Evangeline,”a even-toned, almost child like voice broke in.

All three girls jumped, and almost in unison all three turned their attention to the white and red cat-like creature sitting by Evangelines feet, as calm as if he had always been there. Even though Marinette would have sworn up and down he wasn’t there a minute earlier.

“Kyubey?” Evangeline said in clear surprise and confusion. “Since when do you care about fights between Magical Girls?”

“I don’t,” Kyubey replied bluntly. “This is for Marinettes sake. There’s too high a chance she’ll be injured or killed if you fight here. I would prefer to avoid that, and I would consider it a personal favor to me if you walk away from this fight.”

Evangeline carefully considered Kyubey, one finger absently tapping on her still crossed arms. Finally, she gave a shrug and looked back over at Marinette and Chloé again with a toss of her head.

“A’ight. Toss me the the Grief Seed and we’ll call it even for today.”

Chloé didn’t move.

Marinette turned her head to hiss over her shoulder “Chloé, just give it to her. You can’t fight her here.”

Chloé gritted her teach, eyes intense with anger. But slowly, painfully, she lifted the hand holding her hard won Grief Seed and tossed it through the empty space between them.

Evangeline caught the tiny treasure effortlessly in one hand. She briefly examined it and, once satisfied that it hadn’t been used, slid it into her pocket.

“Nice doing business with ya!” She chipped, before turning on her heel and walking away with her hands laced behind her head.

Kyubey watched Evangeline go for a moment before looking back at the waiting pair.

“I’m impressed that you thought to try and make a deal, Marinette,” he said. “You may have just saved two lives today with nothing but words. You truly are an exceptional girl.”

Marinette heard Chloé gasp behind her, and she herself frowned in confusion at Kyubeys odd show of admiration.

His piece said, Kyubey stood and ran after Evangeline.

A hand grabbed Marinette roughly around the upper arm and pulled her backwards, leaving the Asian girl struggling to avoid tripping as Chloé nearly dragged her up the stairs, Evangelines barrier now gone.

“Chloé? Chloé let go! I can’t walk like this!” Marinette protested. Chloé made no indication she heard, except with a minute tightening of her grip. She pulled Marinette along out the subway and back into daylight, and continued to pull her down the street at a rate that was just barely below a full on run.

Too off balance to dig her heels in, Marinette grabbed a bike rack as they past and finally forced Chloé to stop with a jerk.

“What is your problem?!” Marientte exclaimed. Chloé dropped her grip and whirled around to face Marinette, expression furious.

“My problem? My problem?! My problem is that you just screwed me out of the first Grief Seed I’ve had in weeks! And what’s worse, you made me give to Evangeline, so now she’ll have even MORE of an advantage!”

“You’re mad about that?!” Marinette asked incredulously. “We were in the absolute worst place for you to get in a fight! We can find another Witch, one Grief Seed wasn’t worth the risk!”

“Stockpiling Grief Seeds is my only chance to stand against her!” Chloé shot back, stepping closer into Marinettes personal space. “Without them, I’m screwed no matter where I am! I would have been better off fighting her back there!”

“If you really though that, then why didn’t you just ignore Kyubey and just attack her then?!” Marinette asked heatedly, stepping up to Chloé as well so they were barely a hands breath apart.

“I would have, if I didn’t have to worry about you!” Chloé near shouted, looming over the shorter girl.

“Yeah, well I don’t want you to die either!” Marientte shot back with equal anger.

The two girls glared heatedly at each other for a long moment, until Chloé broke away and turned her back to Marinette.

“I never asked you to worry about me,” she said venomously. “We’re done for tonight. I’m taking you home.”

Marinette clenched her hands into fists, frustrated and angry at Chloé even as she stomped after her. Of COURSE Chloé, arrogant, vain, prideful Chloé would be completely incapable of admitting that the fight was stacked against her! Of COURSE Chloé would rather die than admit to weakness!

The girls wouldn’t exchange another word for the rest of the night. And when Tikki tried to talk to Marinette about what happened after they got home, she shut her down, still too angry and agitated to discuss it.

~*~*~*~*~*~

The sun rose gently the next morning, filling Marinettes bedroom with a warm glow as the girl slumbered peacefully, her kwami sleeping as well by her head on the pillow.

As the darkness retreated, Kyubey was revealed sitting on the bed side dresser next to Marinettes cell phone, puffy tail flickering once as he silently observed the sleeping pair. After a moment he turned his attention to the phone. 

Carefully, silently, he patted at Marinettes phone to bring it around to face him. The passcode lock didn’t even slow him down and he swiftly pulled up the alarm. With a few swipes he deactivated the alarm and locked the phone again.

For the next twenty three minutes and fourteen seconds, he waited.

At twenty three minutes and fifteen seconds he stood and hopped down onto the bed, his light weight barely dipping the mattress. Marinette didn’t even stir as Kyubey approached on feather light paws and sat down again in front of her face.

He lifted one paw, and gently placed it on Marinettes upper lip.

Marinette jerked awake.

“Bwah! What - Kyubey? What??” She sputtered. Tikki shot up from the other side of her head.

“What? What! What?!”

“Good morning Marinette, Tikki,” Kyubey greeted cheerfully. “I’m sorry to wake you, but I needed to speak with you before you went to school.”

Marinette blinked in confusion, then reached over to check her phone.

“I don’t mind, but did it have to be so early….”

She trailed off as stared at her phone without comprehension for a moment. When it clicked that, yes, the time on the phone was accurate, dull confusion was swiftly replaced with wide-eyed horror and panic.

“OH MY GOD I’M GOING TO BE LAAAATE!”

Marinette immediately threw off her comforter and scrambled off the bed, dashing for her closet and wailing about how she was going to be late again without even an Akuma to blame for it and she’d loose her position as Class President which would somehow lead to a domino effect that would end with her living in a cardboard box in the street in the rain.

While Marinette hopped around her room trying to put on a blouse and pants at the same time, Tikki gave Kyubey a suspicious look.

“I saw Marinette set that alarm myself last night,” she said accusingly. “What are you up to?”

“Taking necessary steps to resolve what has now become a problem,” he answered. “You don’t need to worry, you’ll see what I mean in a few minutes.”

Any further questioning was cut off when the frantic Marinette scooped Tikki up in her purse and dashed out the room even as she still tried to fix her hair. Kyubey was quick to run after her, following her down the stairs (“ _ByeMomloveyou_!”). By the time Marinette exited the side door onto the street she was finishing up her second pigtail and was getting ready to switch to a full on run as soon as she was done with her hair.

Until Evangeline came around the corner right in front of her.

Marinette froze.

Her entire world shrunk down to the violent, dangerous, amoral Magical Girl in front of her, acutely aware that she was _alone_ and _Chloé isn’t coming this time_ and _I can’t let her hurt my parents_ and….and…

And why did Evangeline look so surprised to see Marinette?

“Huh. I didn’t know you lived around here,” Evangeline commented mildly.

Kyubey weaved between Marinettes feet to stand slightly in front of her. “Her parents own this bakery. It’s actually more surprising you didn’t already know,”

“Kyubey!!” Marientte exclaimed in horror. Kyubey turned his head to look at her over his shoulder.

“Evangeline has been coming here every Thursday morning for almost two months, it was only a matter of time before the two of you ran into each other anyway,” he pointed out.

It was only then that Marinette saw the pink cardboard box that Evangeline carried, with the patisserie logo printed on it. Evangeline in turn looked at the box, then at Marinette, then back at the box. Slowly she raised a hand and gently slapped her forehead.

“Tom Dupain. Sabine Cheng.” She muttered, dragging her hand down her face. “I am so stupid.”

Marientte rapidly shook her head and pointed at Evangeline. “HOLD ON! How come I’ve never seen you before??”

“You memorize every single customer that comes to the bakery?” Evangeline asked flatly.

“I can recognize the regulars who come every week! And I would absolutely remember YOU!” Marinette shot back, hand unconsciously reaching down to defensively rest on her purse. _If Evangeline threatened to attack her parents…_

“In fairness, Evangeline usually comes by after you’ve already left for school,” Kyubey pointed out.“While it was inevitable the two of you would eventually meet, it’s not that shocking it hadn’t happened yet either.”

Kyubey turned all the way around and hurried back up to Marinette, leaping up to climb up her leg. Startled, Marinette nevertheless offered her arm to let him climb up onto her shoulder. Once he was settled comfortably, Kyubey addressed Evangeline again.

“Since we’re all here, there are some misconceptions that need to be cleared up, for everyones sake. Evangeline, you need to understand that you have no reason to consider Marinette a potential threat.”

Evangeline rolled her eyes and tucked the bakery box under one arm. “Is this about subway? I let them go as a favor and because Chloé gave me her Grief Seed, but Marinette is still a Magical Girl waiting to happen. Stopping the competition is still in my best interest.”

Marinette took a reflexive half a step back.

“I already told you, I’m not going to make a Contract!” Marientte insisted. “I can’t, I _literally_ _can’t_. Even if I wanted to be a Magical Girl, Kyubey wouldn’t be able to make me one!”

“If you weren’t qualified to be one, you wouldn’t be able to see Kyubey or Witches in the first place,” Evangeline shot back. “They’d be as invisible to you as they are to everyone else. Only girls who have the potential to even _be_ Magical Girls can see them, that’s the entire point!”

“Normally you would be correct, but there are unique and extenuating circumstances surrounding Marinette that make her uniquely unqualified,” Kyubey said. “I’m not at liberty to discuss them, as it would be against the rules, but they are binding.”

Evangeline gave Kyubey a deadpan look.

“You spent weeks following me around, waiting for me to make up my mind until I made my Contract with you,” she said. “You were down right pushy at times. After you were so desperate to make a Contact with me, you really expect me to believe you wouldn’t jump at the chance to make a Contract with any other girl?”

“Kyubey, I wish I had an egg sandwich!” Marinette demanded loudly.

Evangelines eyes widened and she dropped her box, scuttling back a couple steps as she raised one arm in front of her like a shield.

Silence.

Stillness.

Evangeline slowly lowered her arm, confusion warring with caution on her face. Her eyes darted to Kyubey on Marinettes shoulder.

“Since Marinette is unqualified to become a Magical Girl, I am not permitted to make a Contract with her and grant her wish.” Kyubey explained. “That is never going to change. Thus, you have no need to view her as a potential threat. She will never become more than what she is right now. You have no quarrel with her.”

Evangeline eyes widened in naked surprised, eyes darting from Kyubey to Marinette and back again.

“Huh,” she said quietly. “I guess you really were telling the truth”

“It’s a very unique situation, it’s natural you would be skeptical,” Kyubey assured her.

Evangeline bent down to retrieve her box from where it fell and quickly peeked under the lid to check the contents. Satisfied, she looked back up at Marinette.

“An egg sandwich? Really?”

“I was actually thinking of a breakfast croissanwich and it got muddled,” Marinette admitted. Evangeline threw her head back and laughed.

“If Kyubey really did grant that wish, it’d better be the BEST freakin’ croissanwich in human history!” She cackled. “You’re a hoot. You know, I meant what I said before; I like how feisty you are. Believe it or not, I really am glad I don’t have to kill you now.”

Evangeline gave Marinette a two finger salute, and started to walk off. Kyubey leapt off her shoulder.

“That went better than I expected,” he commented. “I appreciate your help convincing her, Evangeline can be stubborn once she gets an idea.”

With a farewell nod, Kyubey trotted off, disappearing round the corner in the opposite direction Evangeline went.

Marinette stayed frozen place for a moment longer, before she took a step forward. Then another. And another. Until she was hurrying after the Magical Girl to catch up.

“Wait! There’s something else I need to talk to you about!” She called out.

Evangeline stopped and half turned back, eye brows raised as she watched Marinette approach.

“Wow. You got over everything quickly. I thought you’d still be trying to hide from me for at least a few more weeks, or maybe the rest of forever.”

She wanted to, oh how did Marientte want to, because even now she can still vividly recall with perfect clarity being trapped on her back, with the boot on her chest holding her down and the mallet lifting high and the sheer terror as she realized _this is is this is how I die_.

But the rolling sick fear in her stomach didn’t matter, because she couldn’t let this opportunity pass, this was too important.

“What about Chloé?” Marinette asked. Evangeline frowned in confusion.

“What _about_ Chloé?”

“Well, you can’t possibly patrol all of Paris by yourself,” Marientte reasoned. “At best you’ll be run ragged, at worst Witches will start to proliferate again and you won’t be able to keep up. I’m not saying you and Chloé should be battle buddies, but surely you can split the city?”

Evangeline raised an eyebrow and countered “Why should I agree to share when I could have all the Grief Seeds I could possibly want?”

Marinette reared back slightly, confused and horrified. “Because…because you’re a Magical Girl. You’re supposed to keep people safe by defeating Witches. If Witches grow out of control because there aren’t enough Magical Girls, a lot of people are going to be killed, people who can be saved simply by you and Chloé working together.”

Comprehension dawned on Evangelines face, but it came with a sigh.

“Okay, quick reality check: my job is to hunt Witches. That’s it, that’s what I get paid to do. Protecting ‘innocent people’ has nothing to do with it.”

Marinette gasped in horror, but Evangeline wasn’t done.

“I could try to be all heroic and save everyone, but no matter what I do people will still die randomly every day,” she continued. “They get hit by cars, they choke on their dinner, they trip down stairs, they drink themselves to death, they decide “screw it, dyings easier than living”. And I know it’s easy to forget, but not every bad thing that happens is because a Witch did it. Sometimes life is just shitty like that. So if people are going to die pointlessly anyway no matter what I do, then what’s the point in trying? At least if I can get a Grief Seed it’s not a total waste.”

Marinette was unconsciously shaking her head, unable to believe what she was hearing.

“How…how can you be so cruel? So callous? You’re talking about real people, and just because you can’t save _everyone_ doesn’t mean you don’t have a responsibility to save the people right in front of you! No amount of Grief Seeds is worth a single life!”

Evangelines face darkened.

Before she realized what was happening, Marinette was shoved against the wall, her head cracking painfully against the bricks, neck being crushed by Evangelines hand as she held her in place, not enough to cut off her air completely but enough to be painful. Marinette clawed at her hand, but Evangeline was as immovable as stone as she leaned in closer.

“You have no right to judge me,” she hissed. “You have a warm bed and two parents and dinner every night, YOU don’t know what it’s like to be cold and hungry and desperate and scared that tonight is your last night alive. Without Grief Seeds, I don’t have magic to spare. Without magic, I don’t _eat_. I don’t have a place to _sleep_. I don’t have clothes and soap and _security_. Chloé lives in a goddamn palace with servants and room service and goes to school in a goddamn LIMO. _She’s_ the one who doesn’t need Grief Seeds.”

Her grip tightened ever so slightly, leaving Marinette gasping for air. Evangeline leaned until their noses here nearly touching, eyes burning into her.

“Preach from your ivory tower all you want, where you’re warm and comfortable and fed. But if you had to choose between letting a complete stranger die a quick death, or suffer a slow grim death yourself from cold or starvation, you’d make the exact same choice as me.”

Evangeline held her for a moment longer, then abruptly let her go. Gasping, Marinette nearly collapsed as she rubbed her sore neck.

“I’m letting you live only because your death won’t improve my chances of survival,” Evangeline told her coldly. “Don’t make me change my mind.”

Silently, trembling, Marinette watched Evangeline walk off. All playful energy was gone from her gait, replaced by sharp, firm steps more akin to a march.

Tikki popped out the purse, radiating worry and fear.

“Marinette! Are you hurt? Are you alright?”

“I’m fine,” Marinette assured her, forcing a smile and straightening up. Tikki didn’t look at all assured though.

“I get what you were trying to do, but you can’t forget that Evangeline is dangerous,” Tikki gently chided, flitting around Marinette and checking her neck. “She’s not someone you can reason with, she doesn’t live by the same rules you and other people do.”

Marinettes lips thinned, but she nodded in agreement.

“At least one good thing came out of this.” She observed.

“Yes, at least Evangeline won’t target you anymore,” Tikki agreed.

Marinette shook her head, before turning to look down the street where Evangeline had gone, the other girl having already disappeared from view.

“No. Well, yes, that too. But more importantly, I know a little better why Evangeline is the way she is. And why she will never stop.”

~*~*~*~*~*~

That evening, Marinette met Chloe outside the bakery with a box of savory cheese tarts. Chloe kept intensely focused on her phone and gave no indication she noticed Marinettes approach.

“Hey Chloe,” Marinette greeted. Chloe didn’t respond, and Marientte heaved a sigh.

“Are you still mad about yesterday? I get that giving up the Grief Seed was hard, and I get that it’s frustrating to loose it after we spent weeks trying to find a Witch, but your maneuverability is your single greatest advantage and you lose it fighting underground. So I’m not going to apologize for getting you out of a fight you were more than likely going to lose.”

Chloe abruptly shoved her phone into her purse.

“It’s whatever. Lets just go.” She said bluntly before walking away, still not sparing Marinette so much as a glance.

Marinette repressed the urge to sigh in irritation as she followed. She knew better than to expect an apology, but at least an acknowledgment that Marientte had been acting in Chloes best interest would have been nice.

Still, regardless of how Chloe might still be feeling, Marinette had spent the entire day planning what she needed to say tonight, and she wouldn’t let the other girls recalcitrant mood stop her.

“Listen Chloe, I know that-”

That was as far as she got before Chloe came to an abrupt stop, putting one hand back to halt Marinette as well. A glance ahead quickly answered why.

“Fancy meeting you here!” Evangeline greeted with a wide smile, arms out wide as if expecting a hug as she approached.

“What are you doing here? This is MY territory!” Chloe demanded, moving slightly to put herself in front of Marientte. Evangeline splayed her hand over her chest in mock hurt.

“So suspicious! I’ll have you know my favorite bakery is around here. Marinettes parents make the BEST chocolate croissants!”

Chloe stiffened, and Marinette placed a calming hand on her shoulder.

“Relax, I’m not here for her,” Evangeline said with a dismissive wave of her hand. “Kyubey got us talking, I get it now, she’s never going to be a Magical Girl and I don’t have anything to worry about. But she asked me again why you and I can’t get along, and it got me thinking.”

Marinettes eyebrows shot up. Evangeline had seemed so adamant that morning, was she really…?

“See, the reason you and I gotta fight is because there aren’t enough Grief Seeds to go around right now,” Evangeline continued. “And I don’t know about you, but I don’t exactly enjoy spending hours every day to hunt down Witches. But if I don’t gotta fight you for Seeds, then I got no quarrel with you.

“So, here’s my proposal: we split Felicity’s old territory down the middle, and I leave you alone in exchange for you paying me four Grief Seeds a month. I’ll come by your suite to pick them up at the end of each month, and I’ll count the one you gave me yesterday as payment towards this month. Fair deal, yeah?”

“….That Witch was the first I found in weeks,” Chloe said coldly. “How do you expect me to find enough to pay you four seeds a month AND still find enough to cleanse my own Soul Gem?”

“You’re still finding Familiars, right?” Evangeline asked. “Stop killing the goose before it lays the golden egg, and you’ll get by just fine.”

Still grinning, Evangeline stuck a hand out. “So, do we have a deal?”

Chloe glanced down at the proffered hand and back up again. Her response was simple, cold and sharp as ice.

“No.”

Evangelines grin faded as she retracted her hand. “You really think you’re in such a good a position as to turn me down? We both know I’m stronger than you.”

“I don’t care,” Chloe responded. “I’m not going to let you extort me. I would rather end this tonight than live like that.”

Marinette gasped as Evangelines eyebrows shot up.

“Do you really mean that?” Evangeline asked slowly. Chloe gave a sharp nod.

“The rooftop of Le Grand Paris. No one will bother us there.”

“Chloe no.” Marinette pleaded quietly. Evangeline grinned in eager anticipation.

“Y’know what? I accept. I’ll go on ahead and meet you there, I understand you don’t want to spend the end of your life walking back with me”

Evangeline gave Chloe a two finger salute as a flash of red light transformed her red sweater and white jeans into the white and red dress and boots of her Magical Girl uniform. With a leap she landed on top of a nearby light post, and with another she cleared the rooftop and disappeared from sight.

With a flash of gold light Chloe transformed next, but before she could take flight Marinette grabbed her arm in a vice like grip.

“Let go, Dupain-Cheng,” Chloe ordered. Marinette rapidly shook her head.

“You don’t have to do this, you don’t have to fight her,” she pleaded. Chloe glared down at the shorter girl.

“Are you stupid? Evangeline is going to force this fight sooner than later, and I’m not going to let Familiars grow into Witches so I can buy her off. So yes, I _do_ have to fight her, because that’s the only choice she’ll allow. If I have to fight her, at least it’ll be on my terms this time.”

Marinette shook her head again. “There’s another option; you don’t have to be a Magical Girl at all.”

Chloes annoyance was wiped away for blank incomprehension. “What?”

Marinette hurried to explain “Evangeline told me that she needs Grief Seeds just to survive, to get food and shelter. I don’t know what her situation is, if she’s homeless or what, but I get why she _can’t_ stop. But you can.

“You said yourself you only planned to do this for a year, and you have a home and food and comfort and security. If you quit right now, what do you lose?”

Chloe stared at her for a moment before responding “Are you insane? Are you seriously suggesting I leave Paris to that, that psychopath?? You expect me to just roll over and give up?!”

Marinette bit her lip briefly as she reviewed the argument she had spent hours carefully putting together that day, instead of taking notes in class or working on homework, an argument she kept secret from Tikki up until now lest the little god tried to talk her out of it.

She didn’t think Tikki would approve of what she was about to say to Chloe. 

“I know that there’s a certain responsibility that comes with power, and you know it too,” Marinette said. “That’s why you saved me even though you didn’t like me, because it was the right thing to do, the ‘heroic’ thing to do. But there’s a difference between risking your life to save others, and throwing your life away.

“If you retire, we’re left with Evangeline as the only Magical Girl in Paris. If you fight Evangeline and lose, she’ll kill you and we’re still left with her as our only Magical Girl until Kyubey can contract others.”

“You’re faith in me is astounding, I’m positively tearing up.” Chloe snarked.

“I’m being serious!” Marinette said angrily. “The last time you two fought, you only got in your hits because you took her by surprise and because I was able to distract her. She knows Kyubey won’t grant my wish so I can’t distract her again, and you’ve given up the element of surprise here. How good a chance do you honestly think you have?”

“I can fly literal circles around her and I can attack from a distance with my rings,” Chloe pointed out. “That’s a huge advantage for me, and she can’t match it.”

“Evangeline is a survivalist, everything she does is about ensuring her own survival,” Marinette countered. “Do you honestly think she would have agreed to this fight if she thought she _only_ had a ‘fair’ chance of winning?”

Chloe didn’t reply.

“Exactly,” Marinette continued. “She agreed to it because she believes she still has a high chance of winning _in spite of_ your advantage. And we already know she only needs one good hit to bring you down. Even if we assume you have a 50/50 chance of winning, those odds are NOT good enough to risk your life over.”

Chloe looked away, glare softening and she remained quiet for a long moment.

“….Heroes don’t run away and let the villain win,” she said softly. “Ladybug wouldn’t run away and let Hawkmoth win.”

Marinette felt her heart break. Her grip on Chloes arm loosened, but didn’t release.

“Ladybug has Chat Noir to back her up and the Miraculous cure to fix everything,” Marinette pointed out. “You don’t have either. There’s no shame in admitting when you’re outmatched.”

Chloe looked back at Marinette. “You realize Evangeline will let Familiars feed and kill people so they can grow into Witches she can harvest, right? Isn’t it better that I at least try to stop her, to save those people?”

Marinette dropped her eyes.

That was the hardest question she had to grapple with, the reality that there were innocent lives on the line. Perhaps the moral choice would be for Chloe to at least _try_ to defeat Evangeline, on the small chance she could overcome the more experienced girl and save those future victims. And yet…

“…Maybe it’s wrong and selfish of me, but when all is said and done I don’t want you to become a killer and I don’t want you to die.”

Chloe simply looked at Marinette for a long, long moment with an indecipherable expression.

“Evangeline won’t wait forever.”

Chloe reached over and pulled Marinette close, and before the startled girl could react the girls were already airborne. Rather than making a beeline for the hotel, Chloe took a roundabout route, flying over the park and the Louvre and darting between the high rise buildings, taking the time to admire herself in the reflective windows as they passed.

Marientte couldn’t help but think that Chloe was trying to make the most of a final flight, and the thought terrified her.

All too quickly they were approaching the Le Grand Paris, Evangelines white and red form standing in sharp contrast against the grey and green. Marinette could even make out the small figure of Kyubey sitting on her shoulder. The Magical Girl raised a brow as Chloe and Marinette landed.

“You brought your cheerleader?” She asked flatly. “I mean, you do you, but you realize watching me smash your head open like an over ripe melon is going to give her nightmares for life, right?”

“That’s not going to happen,” Chloe said, stepping forward as she gently pushed Marientte back. Evangeline smirked.

“I give you credit for confidence, but that’s not going to do you a whole lotta good here,” she said. Kyubey hopped off her shoulder as she threw an arm down, and a hammer materialized sliding out of her bell sleeve and into her hand as if she had been hiding it up her sleeve the entire time.

“Marinette, you should leave, Chloe can’t afford to divide her attention between keeping you shielded and fighting Evangeline,” Kyubey said as he approached.

But Chloe was shaking her head.

“Not what I meant. It’s not going to happen because I’m done.”

Her costume flashed away and back to her normal clothes to punctuate to declaration. Marientte felt her heart soar and brought her hands to cover the smile blooming on her face.

Evangeline looked on in confusion while Kyubey froze mid step.

“Come again?” Evangeline asked.

In answer Chloe held out her hand and summoned her Soul Gem, pure of color but of an underwhelming ochre.

“I mean exactly that - I’m done,” she said. “Congratulations Evangeline, you win. Paris is yours. I’m out. I’m done with being a Magical Girl. This isn’t worth dying over.”

“Chloe you can’t quit!” Kyubey said, more emotive than Marinette had ever heard him before. “You made a Contract with me, I granted your wish, and exchange you must hunt Witches for as long as you are able. What was done cannot be undone!”

Chloes expression softened slightly as she turned her attention to Kyubey.

“Don’t get me wrong, I am grateful for my wish. Because of you, I was able to save someone I love, and I couldn’t have done it without you -”

(Marinettes eyes widened behind her, mind already scrambling with questions of _who_ and _saved from what_ and _when_ )

“- but Evangeline has made it abundantly clear that she’s not going to share Paris with me, and if Paris is going to end up with one Magical Girl either way, I’d rather retire and live if it’s all the same.”

Evangeline stomped forward, arresting everyones attention again.

“I don’t believe you,” she said. “You’ve experienced magic, you tasted real power, you even touched the sky. Nobody ever gives up that kind of power.”

Chloe scoffed. “My daddy’s the Mayor and one of the richest men in the city, and my mom’s a world class fashion mogul. Yeah I needed the wish, but unlike you I don’t need magic as a crutch for power.”

Evangeline glared heatedly, grip tightening on her weapon handle.

“You expect me to take you at your word that you’re quitting for real?” Evangeline growled. “As long as you have that Soul Gem, you have the power to come back. And you WILL come back.”

Chloe nodded. “A fair point. Best to get rid of the temptation then.”

She turned to the side, where the nearest edge of the building was, and pulled her arm back.

“CHLOE NO!” Kyubey exclaimed in panic.

But it was too late, she was already throwing the gem with all her mortal might.

The sparkling gem flew in a high arc, and like a falling star it descended and disappeared over the edge of the roof.

Evangelines jaw dropped in undisguised shock, and Marinette jumped excitedly in place that it was _over_ , that Chloe would be _safe_ at last!

Chloe tilted her head back to grace Evangeline with a cocky grin.

“Unlike you, I’m not so weak as to…”

She trailed off, and like a puppet with it’s strings cut she collapsed to her knees and fell over.

Marinette cried out and reached out to her, barely catching her in time before her head hit the ground. Evangeline stood frozen in place, shocked and confused.

“Chloe? Chloe?!” Marinette called her name desperately. But the girl didn’t respond, eyes unfocused and staring blankly up into the sky, mouth slightly parted, body limp in Marinettes arms.

“Oh Chloe, why would you do that?” Kyubey lamented, coming over to stand on Chloes other side.

“What happened to her? What’s wrong with her?” Marinette asked him, panic rising. Kyubey tilted his head as if in confusion.

“You saw it yourself, Marinette. She threw herself off the building, and we’re so high up that she passed the point where she could control her body anymore.”

“What the HELL are you talking about?!” Evangeline demanded as she approached as well. “Chloe didn’t throw herself off the building, she just threw her Soul Gem! Why would that make her…her…?!”

Buy Kyubey was shaking his head. “You still don’t get it, do you? They’re a called Soul Gems for a _reason_.”

Marinette felt her heart stop.

She lowered her head, first to hover her ear over Chloes mouth to feel for breath, then shifted to rest her ear against her chest.

Nothing.

No breath.

No heartbeat.

_No life._

“Oh my god…” Evangeline whispered, her horror matching Marinettes.

Something snapped within Marinette. She gently set Chloe down, and then was racing for the roof access door.

“Tikki, Spots on!” She commanded as soon as the door was shut behind her.

As the transformation swept over her, Ladybug stopped at the stairwell. She swung over the railings and balanced herself by her arms so she was hanging perfectly in the center of stairwell. She took a moment to check below her, and then released her grip.

The floors flew past her, wind whistling in her ears as Ladybug dropped straight down, arms above her head and watching the bottom level race up at her.

She landed in a crouch and rather than going through the hotel lobby she instead burst through the service entrance that led her out into the alley, on the same side of the building that Chloe had thrown her gem.

Fortunately the dimly glowing gem was out in the open, in the middle of the alleyway. Ladybug scooped it up, and held it close to her chest as gently as if it were a baby bird.

With her yo-yo she swung up into the air, landing not on the Le Grand roof but rather on a neighboring building. From her perch she could see that Evangeline was still there, but had collapsed to her knees besides Chloe, seemingly stunned.

Satisfied, Ladybug landed behind the rooftop access and de-transformed with a quiet ‘Tikki spots off!’ And came back around.

Evangeline didn’t seem to even notice her return, still staring down at Chloe stunned shock. Kyubey acknowledged her return with a glance, but said nothing.

Heart racing in anticipation and fear ( _what if it doesn’t work what if it doesn’t work what if it doesn’t work_ ) Marinette gently placed the dark yellow Soul Gem back in Chloes open hand.

A couple seconds later, the light came back to Chloes eyes, and she was gasping and moving and her color was coming back. Marinette nearly collapsed with relief as Chloe sat up up, dazedly blinking. Evangeline stayed seated where she was, just staring at her rival Magical Girl.

Chloe blinked at Evangeline, then at Marinette, and finally at Kyubey.

“What…what just happened?” She asked.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The way Kyubey woke up Marinette is 100% based on how my cat used to wake me up. She didn’t do it often, but it was definitely deliberate and 100% effective. There’s a reason I don’t let her sleep in my room anymore. XD
> 
> I considered having the “Marinette and Evangeline talk 1on1 scene” before the subway scene, but ultimate went with the current order because I felt it worked better if Evangeline was still perceived as a threat to Marinette as well as Chloé. Plus it gave reason for Kyubey to step in for Marinettes sake. 
> 
> I originally planned to have Chloé and Evangeline meet on a bridge to have their showdown, Chloé throw her Soul Gem into the river, and Marinette dive into the water to retrieve it. I liked the imagery, but I realized that the set up wouldn’t allow enough distance between Chloé and her Soul Gem for her to be affected right away. Hence being changed to throwing it from the top of a very tall building. At least I still get Marinette diving dramatically to the rescue. :D


	9. Regret

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In which Chloé has terrible coping mechanisms, and Marinette contradicts canon by not being perfect.

Chloé was in a daze after the fight, barely reacting when Marinette hesitantly explained what had happened to her, what had been done to her. When Marientte tugged her to her feet, the stunned blonde meekly followed.

Evangeline let them go without a word.

Chloé allowed herself to be guided down the stairs, back to her suite, ending at her bedroom. She didn’t make a sound as Marinette gently removed her shoes or as she released her pony tail, not even when she dug out her nightgown after a brief search. It wasn’t until Marinette softly asked if she wanted her to stay that Chloé responded with a small shake of her head.

Marinette left the bedside lamp on but turned off the overhead light, gently closing the door to leave Chloé alone with her thoughts in her quiet, dim bedroom.

Tikki floated out of her purse, her large blue eyes full of sadness.

“Marinette…”

The girl shook her head, fighting back the tears, and mentally begged Tikki to understand. Not here. Not yet.

The little goddess gave a small nod.

Marinette went to leave, but stopped short when she saw Kyubey waiting in the living room, sitting on the low table as he watched Marinette leave Chloés door.

A surge of burning, righteous fury swelled up inside her, a tingling heat from her toes to her fingertips, and it took all her discipline to not start screaming. Instead she addressed the small creature in a low voice thick with anger.

“You lied to her.”

His tail flicked, but as ever his frozen expression betrayed nothing.

“I answered all of Chloés questions truthfully,” he said. “If she re-interpreted what I said to suit her desires, she has no one to blame but herself.”

“You told her that most Magical Girls only serve for a few months!” Marinette shot back. “But she has to collect Grief Seeds to keep her Soul Gem charged. If you really did remove her soul and stuck it in that gem, then she _can’t_ quit, can she? You _tricked_ her! You tricked her, Felicity, Evangeline, all of them!”

“I don’t understand why you consider it ‘tricking.’” Kyubey lamented. “I always inform potential contractees that being a Magical Girl is a commitment, yet you are angry that they are held to it? It is true that the average Magical Girl in this era and this region lasts four to five months, but I never said it was because they retired. Chloé made that assumption all on her own.”

“None of those girls would’ve agreed if they knew what it meant!” Marinette near shouted as she barreled down on Kyubey. “That’s not informed consent, you can’t have a contract without informed consent!”

Marinette pointed wildly back towards Chloés bedroom door.“You turned her into a Magical Girl, you have to change her back right now!”

Kyubey just looked up at Marinette, not at all intimidated by her fury.

“You have the ability to bake a cake, Marinette. Does that also give you the ability to un-bake it? Of course not. It’s the same with Magical Girls; I remove their souls from their fragile bodies to make them nigh invulnerable and imbue them with the magical abilities they need to fulfill their duties. However, it is impossible for me to reverse the process. What was done cannot be undone.”

Marinettes fists clenched in impotent fury.

“So that’s it then?” She asked, voice wavering with emotion. “She’s stuck fighting Witches forever until she dies? And I’m supposed to accept that?”

“Chloé willingly entered into a Contract in exchange for her greatest wish to be granted, and she remains obligated to the original terms of the Contract rather than the terms she made up in her head.” Kyubey countered evenly.

Tikki appeared as a floating red dot in Marinettes peripheral vision.

“Marinette, let's just go home.” She said. “You won’t get anywhere arguing with him. After thousands of years, he still doesn’t understand why humans would be upset with what he does. He _cannot_ understand. He will _never_ understand.”

Marinette glared at Kyubey for a moment longer, breathing heavily, arms trembling, fighting back tears of anger and frustration.

Kyubey remained utterly impassive.

At last Marinette broke away and nearly ran for the door, Tikki flying behind her and shooting Kyubey a hateful glare as she passed.

The girl kept her composure until she made it to the elevator. Once the doors had closed, she sniffled, then dropped to her knees and covered her face with both hands as she cried, Tikki on her shoulder in comfort.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Chloé couldn’t bring herself to get out of bed the next morning, and it wasn’t until her alarm rang for almost ten minutes did she summon the energy to reach over to her phone and tap it off. She didn’t get up when Jean Claude came knocking twenty minutes later to bring her breakfast, nor did she respond when he worriedly knocked again asking permission to enter.

She didn’t pay much attention to what he asked when he came in, but his hand on her forehead did feel comfortingly cool. She dimly recalled him asking if he should call in sick for her, to which she gave a slight nod.

She spent the rest of the morning in that bed, not sleeping but not feeling like she was awake either. She just felt numb, like she was just floating in a grey fog, like she didn’t exist as a human anymore.

_Because she’s not human anymore, she hasn’t been human for the last three months,_ her thoughts whispered traitorously.

Her phone rang once, and Chloé didn’t reach for it until it stopped ringing. She didn’t even pay attention to who called, just focusing long enough to put her phone on silent before dropping it again and rolling over.

For a small eternity, she stayed like that.

Until she heard the one voice that could prompt a reaction.

“Do you plan to stay in bed forever?”

Chloés eyes widened.

With a burst of energy she threw herself up into a sitting position and stared in shock at Kyubey, who sat at the foot of her bed.

Shock was quickly replaced with cold, venomous fury. In her left hand she summoned her weapon and pointed it threateningly towards the white creature as she moved up onto her knees.

“Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t slice you in half right now!” She demanded.

“You already know it would accomplish absolutely nothing,” Kyubey answered, not even flinching.

“It’d make me feel better!” Chloé shot back. “You turned me into a - a - I don’t even KNOW what I am now! I don’t know if I’m a golem or a homunculus or a freaking ZOMBIE now but you had NO RIGHT to take away my humanity!”

“What an odd thing to be upset about,” Kyubey commented mildly.

“ODD?!” Chloé screeched. “I HAVE EVERY RIGHT TO BE UPSET ABOUT THIS!! HOW COULD YOU NOT TELL ME!!”

“Let me ask you; did you believe souls even existed before yesterday?” Kyubey asked.

Chloé froze.

“I thought as much,” he continued. “So now you’re all of a sudden assigning tremendous meaning to something as irrelevant as its vessel? A soul is a soul whether it’s in your body or your gem.

“All I did was remove it from your fragile organic body and put it into a small, easy to protect container that could also be used to unlock and facilitate magical abilities. Granted, you need to care for it by purifying it with Grief Seeds, but the trade off is now your body will require _less_ care because your gem will be constantly using magic to keep it in top condition.”

Chloé lowered her hand.

“So…even if I’m doing nothing, my gem is still loosing magic?” She asked with quiet horror. Kyubey nodded.

“That’s right. So long as you can collect Grief Seeds consistently enough, you can theoretically keep your body running indefinitely. Assuming you survive everything else, of course.”

Chloé fell back down to sit on her ankles, feeling like she’d been punched all over again as the rest of her (much shorter) life laid before her with crystal clarity.

“I’m a little surprised that I had to explain this much to you,” Kyubey mused. “Marinette was able to figure out most of this on her own with just her intuition. She really is as exceptional as she seems.”

A whirlwind of emotion surged through Chloé in that moment - shock, anger, confusion, hurt - and the gold ring was materializing again and flying out of her hand almost before she thought of it.

Her aim went high though, and Kyubey was able to duck beneath it. The weapon disappeared into nothing before it hit the door.

“Get. Out.” Chloé growled.

Obediently, Kyubey stood and jumped off the end of the bed. Chloé didn’t even hear him hit the floor.

The object of her anger gone, she felt her energy drain out again and she could only fall back into bed, staring up at the ceiling.

She thought back to that moment when she made her contact, when she had been SO SURE she was making the right choice, when she wished for -

Her wish.

Chloé rolled over and grabbed her phone from her dresser, pulling it in close. She unlocked it and just stared at the selfie of herself and Adrian.

It was the last picture they took together, and she took it because it was the happiest she had seen him since Emilie disappeared.

The day she became a Magical Girl, Chloé change the background image on her phone to that picture, as a constant reminder of what she was fighting for, what she was sacrificing for, the happiness she _and she alone_ made possible.

“It was worth it,” she said quietly.

She curled up more in bed, as if trying to cocoon the phone and it’s precious memory.

“It was worth it, it has to be worth it, _please_ be worth it…”

~*~*~*~*~*~

Marinette wasn’t surprised that Chloé skipped school the day after the Soul Gem reveal. She tried calling, once in the late morning during a “bathroom break” and again at lunch, but went to voice mail both times.

“Chloé seems to be the kind of person who needs to be alone to process major events,” Tikki reasoned. “Let her have the space she needs, she knows by now you’ll be there for her when she’s ready.”

The day after Chloés absence was Friday, and the day of the classes work experience field trip at Le Grand Paris. Marinette fully expected to see Chloé skipping again, or at best joining the class for the morning meet up and breaking away as soon as possible to go back to her room. On the way over Marinette was already brainstorming various excuses and plans to get away from whatever assignment she ended up with long enough to go check up on the heiress.

But seeing Chloé not only join the class, but skip over and glomp on Adrians arm with an adoring smile while cheerfully (and loudly) letting him know that they were going to be partnered at the front desk together, and wasn’t that just so _wonderful_?

That, Marinette did NOT expect.

Alya assumed Marinettes dropped jaw reaction was due to Chloés brazen manipulations. Marinette rolled with it, somewhat awkwardly (“What? O-oh yeah, of course, _totally_ unfair Chloé gets to be with Adrian all day!”).

Maybe she should have been glad that Chloé seemed to be feeling better, but it was hard to feel any relief while Adrian looked so _uncomfortable_ the entire time she was hanging off him.On top of that, Chloés wide smiles and hugs and selfies with him were so exaggerated Marinette felt like she was watching a pantomime of affection rather than the real thing.

In short, it was painful to watch on so many levels.

More confusingly was she and Alya conveniently not showing up on the assignment roster Mayor Bourgeois had, only to be assigned possibly the worst roles available by none other than Chloé herself.

Not that Marinette would put it past Chloé to still be bitter about the Lady Wifi incident and take the opportunity for petty revenge, but to do the same to Marinette, after everything they’ve been through together? That hurt.

“What makes you so sure picking you to be the gofer is meant to be a punishment?” Tikki asked. “It’s not _that_ bad a job.”

“I’m running around tourist traps for a pair of Eiffel Tower shades because a crazy American didn’t believe me when I told him they don’t exist!” Marinette exclaimed as she hurried down the street. “Okay, yes, I know Chloé couldn’t have possibly anticipated Jagged Stone showing up, but if not him it’d be some other crazy rich tourist with another crazy impossible request. What am I supposed to think??”

“That you need to talk to Chloé rather than jumping to conclusions and assigning motivation,” Tikki answered.

“If she’ll let me,” Marinette muttered.

And then Pixelator showed up to ruin everyones day.

~*~*~*~*~*~

If Adrian had thought Chloé had been getting clingy at school, it was nothing compared to being stuck with her on the work experience assignment. The entire morning he had maybe a total of 10 minutes where she wasn’t touching him in some way - hand on his shoulder or arm, legs touching, chair pushed up right next to him, and that was just when she was being passive! Chloé had been a tactile person as a child, so he was used to physical contact with her, but this was getting excessive and embarrassing.

Too bad every time he tried to say something, the stupid voice in the back of his brain would hiss that _he’s over reacting, Chloés his childhood friend, he’s going to hurt her feelings if he tells her to back off_.

Being trapped in an endless void by Pixelator would have been a relief honestly, if Chloé hadn’t been trapped with him. Even now, as he tried to hurry away from her without looking like he was _running_ away, Chloé easily kept pace with a hand on his back, like it was a tether that tied them together.

His back itched.

“Adrikins, do you ever…regret going to school?”

Adrian stopped dead and whirled around, barely believing what he just heard. “What?”

Chloé withdrew her hand and gripped her other arm instead, casting her gaze down and to the side as she shuffled back almost unconsciously. Gone was the perky, adoring, arrogant heiress, and in her place was a nervous, almost vulnerable teen.

“I mean…Hawkmoth started sending Akumas the same day you were supposed to start. And because you’re going to school now and getting out more, you’re getting caught up with a lot of them. But if you were still being home schooled, you’d be safe. You wouldn’t have to worry about Akumas anymore, not for yourself anyway. So, do you ever wish….?”

“Absolutely not.”

The words leapt out of his mouth without him having to even think of them. Chloé looked up at him, blinking.

“Yeah, if I was still being homeschooled I’d be safer, but I’d be _miserable_ ,” Adrian said. “Even with all the Akumas, these past few months have been some of the best of my life. Sure it’s not perfect, but I have friends now, I get to experience being a normal kid doing normal things, and it’s been everything I hoped for and more. And…”

Perhaps Adrian should have stopped there. Chloé was becoming so clingy, so possessive, warping their friendship into something he didn’t recognize and didn’t know how to handle, and perhaps he should have been more wary of saying anything that could encourage that behavior.

But he remembered being small and sad and lonely, and a girl as sharp and brilliant as the sun coming and declaring he was HER friend, and he MATTERED, and she never let him forget it. And Adrian, kind, gentle, sweet Adrian, could not bear to see that girl suffering that same sadness and not try to lift her up as she had for him.

“…and I have you to thank for it. I know what a risk you took getting me registered and forging my dads signature, but you did it anyway because you wanted to help me, because you knew how much I hated being trapped in that house. I will always be grateful to you for helping get this little bit of freedom.”

Slowly, a smile bloomed on Chloés face, lighting up her teary eyes, as bright as a sun breaking through rain clouds.

Suddenly the smile was wiped away as her eyes sharpened, as clear and hard as sapphires. She reached out both hands to grab Adrian by the shoulders. The boy flinched, but rather than pulling in for a hug (or worse, a kiss), she merely held him in place.

“If you mean that, then promise me something right here and right now,” she demanded. “Promise me that you’ll never regret your choice to come to school, and you’ll never regret being happy.”

The sheer intensity emanating off the girl left Adrian briefly speechless. But with the most reassuring smile he could manage, Adrian held up a pinkie.

“I pinkie swear.”

Chloé looked down at the offered finger for a long moment, looking ready to cry again.

She held her composure, though her eyes were suspiciously glassy and her smile wobbly, as she withdrew her hands from his shoulders and linked her own pinkie with his.

“No regrets,” she said more quietly, and Adrian wasn’t sure if she was talking to him or herself.

He felt the temptation to ask _why_ again, to ask why she was so needlessly cruel at school, why she had changed, why she was trying to change the dynamic of their friendship when they were fine before…

…and once again, fear of the answer made him swallowed it back again.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Pixelator defeated and work experience over, it was tempting to just go home for a well earned rest for a few hours before Jagged Stones concert that night. Sadly, Marinettes innate sense of responsibility - and Tikkis firm look - wouldn’t let her go so easily. With a quick excuse to Alya about having dropped something and needing to go find it, she escaped back into the hotel as the rest of the class was leaving.

With a deep breathe, Marinette steeled herself and knocked on Chloés door.

It swung open, but the moment Chloé saw who it was her expression twisted from mild curiosity to sheer disdain.

“What do you want?” She asked, crossing her arms.

Confused as she was by Chloés sudden hostility, Marinette refused to let it deter her.

“I wanted to see how you were doing after…you know.” She said. “May I come in?”

Chloé scoffed as she leaned against the doorframe, blocking the entrance.

“I’m doing _juuuuust_ fine, Dupain-Cheng. I’m super! Spectacular! You can leave now for the concert you won a ticket for just for getting a pair of stupid shades, along with your best friend and _my_ Adrikins, even though he and I were doing the exact. Same. Job! All day! Because you’re just _sooooo_ lucky, aren’t you?”

Marinette frowned, anger bubbling up, but forcing herself to push it down again.

“I’m trying to be understanding Chloé, and I know how hard the last few days must have-”

Chloé abruptly leaned forward into Marinettes face, cutting off the shorter girl.

“No. You don’t know a single. Damn. Thing.” She hissed.

Before Marinette could responded, Chloé retreated and slammed the door in her face. She opened back up again almost right away however.

“By the way, since Evangeline isn’t targeting you anymore, I don’t need to babysit you anymore. You can go to your stupid concert tonight and not worry about a freaking thing!”

The door slammed shut again.

Marinettes jaw dropped in shock. She let out a frustrated growl and stomped away, but was stopped when Tikki floated up to block her.

“Marinette, you can’t give up yet!” She pleaded. “We both know Chloé won’t admit when she needs helps, and she needs support now more than ever!”

“She seemed to be doing pretty well today, and she obviously doesn’t want anything to do with me!” Marinette retorted. “I don’t know what her problem is with me all of a sudden, but if she doesn’t want me here, then fine, I’ll leave her alone like she wants.”

“Please Marinette, try one more time,” Tikki said. “She must be really hurting right now and she’s throwing up shields. Let her know you’ll still be there for her.”

For a moment, Marinette really did reconsider.

Only to shake her head.

“Not until she’s ready to stop taking her issues out on me. I’m not going to stand there and be Chloés punching bag just so she can feel better.”

Marinette marched onward back to the elevator, Tikki trailing sadly behind her.

~*~*~*~*~*~

It took twenty minutes for Chloé to stop waiting by the door.

~*~*~*~*~*~

True to her word, Chloé stopped coming by the bakery to pick Marinette up for Witch patrol after that.

It still took three days for Marinette to stop waiting on the corner where the Magical Girl used to be, a box of fresh pastries in hand.

~*~*~*~*~*~

The six-winged Familiar was a nasty creature, aggressive and constantly trying to shred Chloé with its razor sharp feathers, but once Chloé was able to slice off two of it’s wings on one side the fight was as good as over.

Chloé released her transformation as the world shimmered away, psychedelic colors fading away to be replaced with the nighttime shadows under one of the many bridges crossing the Seine.

“You realize you’re just wasting energy when you fight Familiars, right?” A voice asked from behind her.

Chloé sharply turned and warily eyed Evangeline as she approached. The dark haired girl was careful to stop a respectful distance away.

“Relax, I’m not here to fight,” she said, holding both her hands up. “I’m just here to talk.”

“What’s there to talk about?” Chloé asked, not dropping her guard. “If anything, I’d think you’re be even more desperate to get rid of the competition.”

“Fair enough,” Evangeline conceded with a nod. “And I still say I need more Grief Seeds than you do to survive. All else aside, you still have a safe place to sleep and warm food to eat every day. So every time you took a Greif Seed, it was like you were taking food out of my mouth while you already had a feast waiting for you, and I resented you for that.”

Chloés expression only hardened.

“Are you trying to get me to feel sorry for you, after everything you’ve done?” She asked sharply.

Evangelines lip curled in disgust.

“God no. It’s not an easy life, but it’s still the life I chose and it’s a hell of a lot better than what I left behind. The point I’m trying to make is that I didn’t realize that you still needed Grief Seeds to survive, period, just like me. Just because you don’t need as many doesn’t mean you don’t need any at all, and I can’t resent you for that. So I came to bury the hatchet.”

“Bury the what now?” Chloé asked in confusion.

“Bury the…actually never mind, it’s an English idiom, I guess it doesn’t translate well. Anyway, let’s agree to split Paris in half between us and stay out of each others way, m’kay?”

“Just like that?” Chloé asked, eyes narrowed in suspicion. Evangeline merely smiled and nodded.

“Just like that. I never had anything personal against you. I even brought a peace offering.”

Evangeline pulled something out of her pocket and gently tossed it through the air. Chloé caught it on sheer reflex and found she now held a Grief Seed crowned with a warped musical note.

“I figured you haven’t found another Witch since the subway yet, and you’re probably overdue for a good cleansing,” Evangeline explained, rocking back on her heels with her hands in her pockets. “Feel free to thank me any time.”

“This isn’t mine,” Chloé said flatly.

Evangeline raised an eyebrow. “Yeah, I already used that one. Don’t tell me you had your heart set on getting it back.”

“Tell me,” Chloé said slowly, “did this seed come from a Witch you found, or a Familiar you allowed to grow into a Witch?”

Evangeline stopped rocking and glared at the taller girl.

“I see.” Chloé said in understanding. She tossed the seed back again, and Evangeline snapped her hand up to catch it.

“Keep your Grief Seed,” Chloé told her. “I’m not so desperate I’ll take blood money from you.”

“Blood money?! Are you insane?” Evangeline exclaimed, gripped the seed tight. “Did you forget that you need these seeds to stay alive? You’re not saving anyone by being all noble here!”

Chloé crossed her arms and raised her chin slightly. “You might not care, but I still believe that Magical Girls are meant to spread hope, not thrive on the misery of others. I refuse to believe my life depends on the suffering of others.”

Evangeline snorted. “Good god, I can’t believe you can say that with a straight face. You’ve caused HOW many Akumas in the last three months? You’re a selfish, spoiled brat whose only playing hero so she can feel good about herself. Say what you want about me, but at least I’m not a sanctimonious hypocrite!”

Chloés expression darkened as her nails dug into her arms.

“I think we’re done here,” she said coldly. “We will never see eye to eye, and I never want to see you again.”

“For once, we’re in complete agreement,” Evangeline said, before turning on her heel to march away.

Chloé waited until Evangeline had disappeared into the night before she turned to head home.

~*~*~*~*~*~

For awhile, it was as if everything had gone back to normal, the way life was before Marientte ever met Felicity and was pulled into the world of Magical Girls and Witches.

In class Chloé acted as she always did; goofing off while Sabrina did her work, making snide remarks anytime someone mentioned something she considered beneath her, and cutting down her classmates with sharp sarcasm.

The biggest change was how she started attaching herself to Adrians hip anytime he was allowed to have lunch at school, regardless of who else (mainly Nino) he was already with, Sabrina awkwardly sitting nearby. Even that was largely dismissed as Chloé being dramatic and trying to ‘win’ over Adrian, so it was met with little more than eye rolls by the rest of the class and expressions of sympathy for Adrian.

For her part, Marinette focused on her school work and personal projects, even practicing a bit of Chinese in anticipation of her Great Uncles visit the following Friday. She even had the amazing opportunity to design the cover of Jagged Stones newest album!

Granted she and Chat Noir had to deal with Guitar Villain, but even dealing with Akumas wasn’t so bad. The ‘rules’ were clear, Guitar Villains thought process easy to understand, and Ladybug knew exactly what she needed to do to make everything better.

In short, Marinette was reveling in the free time she had reclaimed time now she didn’t have to spend two or three hours each night wandering aimlessly around Paris for a spoiled brat who didn’t even want her there.

Hopefully, if she said it to herself often enough, she’ll start to actually believe it.

~*~*~*~*~*~

With the Worlds Greatest Chef cooking competition taking place at Le Grand Paris, Marinette was aware that running into Chloé again was going to be a possibility. She’d only hoped it wouldn’t be like _this_!

“Oh look who it is! Everyones favorite person, Marinette Dupain-Cheng,” Chloés shrill voice rang through the hotel lobby, causing Marinette to grit her teeth.

“I mean, seriously?” Chloé continued flippantly. “Does your great-uncle _really_ expect to win the contest with a SOUP!? It's not even a main dish! Please! Doesn't he know how to make sushi like everyone else?”

The familiar anger bubbled up again in Marinette, not terribly shocked by Chloés blatant ignorance but absolutely offended on her relatives behalf.

“Japanese people make sushi, Chloé.” Adrian corrected, making no attempt to hide his annoyance. “Cheng Shifu is Chinese!”

“Besides, he's not like "everyone else”.” Marinette added sharply. “My Great Uncle is the best chef in the world. His soup is legendary!”

“Well, I despise soup.” Chloé declared, turning her nose up. The apparent non-sequitur briefly confused Marientte out of her anger

“So what?” She asked.

“Didn't you know?” Chloé answered smugly. “I’m on the jury. Your uncle will not be getting my vote, for sure.”

“Just what is your deal with me?!” Marinette demanded, marching up to the blonde. “First you get me and Alya the worst jobs in the hotel just because you could, and now you’re going to try and sabotage my uncle? If you have a problem with me, just say it to my face!”

Chloés expression blanked.

“You think I purposely gave you the worst assignment for the work experience?” Chloé asked. Marientte threw her hands up.

“You weren’t being subtle about it! Did you think I wouldn’t notice you targeting me?!”

Chloé blinked a couple times, then her expression slowly darkened.

“So,” she said flatly, “that’s what you really think of me.”

She shoved past Marientte and angrily marched up the stairs.

“That was a little weird,” Adrian commented quietly, before gracing Marientte with a proud smile. “But it was great to see you call Chloé out like that, and for you stand up for your uncle. He would have appreciated that.”

As happy as she was to be on the receiving end of Adrians admiration and kind words, and as much as she appreciated his reassurance that Cheng Wang tearing up her bouquet wasn’t a sign of his dislike of her, but rather him taking artistic inspiration for his famous soup, Marinette couldn’t disregard the tickle at the back of her mind that Chloés reaction didn’t seem quite right.

Then her uncles famous Celestial Soup received an abysmal score of 0.8 while the chef himself claimed sabotage, and it only took one look at Chloés smug smile to realize what had happened.

_How dare she!_ Marinette thought furiously, feeling the knife in her back. _How dare she, how dare she, how dare she!_

But anger would have to wait - her uncle looked absolutely devastated by the outcome, and he deserved to know that he didn’t fail, and her own culpability.

“Uncle Cheng?” She said hesitantly as she approached him. “I'm sure it's not your fault. In fact, I know it's not. I'm pretty sure Chloé's behind this. It was actually because of me. I provoked her, and—“

**“** Shame is on Celestial Soup.” He interrupted. “I shall never be "World's Greatest Chef"!

The shamed chef stormed off, deaf to Marinette calling out to him. Adrian came up behind her, sympathetic

“It's horrible to lose face in China,” he explained, as he put a comforting hand on her shoulder. “We'll wait for him downstairs.”

With a sigh Marinette allowed Adrian to guide her away. As he led her down the stairs, a memory bubbled up unbidden, something Chloé had said not so long ago.

_"But…for anyone who’s creating something, it’s different. They’re expressing their unique voice, so you can’t truly compare them with anyone else. Music, drawing, dancing, sculpting, painting, heck, even cooking and fashion count because someone created it to express something._

_“…after they get to a certain skill level, after they’ve perfected their technique, they get to decide what it means to be exceptional. Because it’s their voice, and no one else can tell them what it’s supposed to be._

_“I just…I really admire people who can do that, even if I don’t actually say it.”_

So much for her admiration of artists, if she was willing to sabotage a great chef to get back at Marientte.

~*~*~*~*~*~

After finding himself in the direct path of three Akumas in an eight day period, Adrian conceded that Chloé may have had reason to worry that he’d regret leaving his fortress of a mansion.

Granted, being Chat Noir meant being in the Akumas path worked in his favor because it meant he could take action right away, but even if he was a regular civilian he couldn’t imagine wanting to go back to his life before, home schooled and isolated.

“Chat Noir?”

“Ladybug?”

And, because Chat realized a long time ago he was basically incapable of NOT flirting with his lady at least once per meeting, added with a cheeky grin and exaggerated bow “So nice of you to make our dinner date!”

“To bad I’m on a diet,” Ladybug quipped back with a grin.

The pair were interrupted by a projector flaring to life, displaying a rotund, grey skinned man with an orange shirt and a white chefs hat.

“I am Kung Food, and I will be the worlds greatest chef with my newest masterpiece: Brat Soup!” He declared loudly. “No one may leave until the secret ingredient has been found and brought to me. Bring me Chloé Bourgeois!”

The image flickered off.

“Well, now we know for sure who’s been Akumatized and who he’s after,” Chat commented, with a soul deep sense of unsurprise.

“And that he hasn’t found her yet,” Ladybug added, in full Serious Hero Business mode. “We’d better find her before he does.”

“Chloé grew up in this hotel, she knows all the best hiding places and all the best escape routes,” Chat pointed out. “I say we focus on getting to Kung Food first, he’ll be much easier to find.”

“Either way we need to start heading upwards, we can’t waste too much time debating,” Ladybug decided.”

Easier said than done, as it turned out that the judges who ate Chef Wangs soup had been mind controlled into his minions. Jagged Stone appearing out of the elevator with a tuna sword (and boy did the pun loving Chat have fun with THAT!) was their first warning.

Unlike with Princess Fragrance, Kung Food seemed able to give his minions actual martial skills and seemingly enhanced strength, so while he had fewer fighters each one was a more dangerous opponent. Still, it was a two on one fight and only took a bit of teamwork to lock the rock star in a closet.

Mayor Bourgeois with a sausage-and-potato chain showed up next to delay them as they headed up the levels, and while he was physically more threatening he also proved to be easier to trick - Ladybug just had to goad him into trying to copy her yo-yo move to trick him into pulling a chandelier down on top of himself, which conveniently created an opening to the next level up.

This time however, the pair were stopped by none other than Kung Food himself, flanked by armed and ready Marlena and Alec.

“Ladybug! Chat Noir! I will not let you stop me from obtaining the main ingredient for my Brat Soup, but you will add great super hero flavor!”

Threat made, the grey skinned Akuma stepped back and let Marlena and Alec move up, Marlena pulling out an arrow for her macaroon bow and Alec arming his cheese wheel crossbow.

“Hey! Get back here!” Chat called out, but had to quickly duck a cheese wheel shot by Alec.

Kung Food ignored the black cat hero and exited the room with purposeful strides.

“He must have discovered where Chloé is hiding if he’s not bothering with us just yet!” Ladybug realized, deflecting Marlenas arrows.

Chat felt his heart lurch in his throat.

“Ladybug, you go after Kung Food, I’ll take care of these too!”

“You can’t defeat them both on your own!” Ladybug shouted back even as she deflected arrows with her spinning yo-yo.

“I don’t have to defeat them! I just need to delay them long enough for you to get Chloé away from Kung Food!” Chat responded, running around the room to avoid Marcs exploding cheese wheels (and WOO MAN did they stink!).

Ladybug hesitated for a moment longer, but gave Chat a decisive nod. She flung her yo-yo out once to trip Marlena up, then used the opening to dash for the door Kung Food had disappeared through.

Marc leveled his crossbow at Ladybugs retreating back, but Chat used his baton to knock him off his feet before he could fire off a shot.

Taking on Marc and Marlena on his own WAS considerably more difficult, more so when one tried to break away to follow Ladybug and Chat would be forced to stop them without leaving himself vulnerable to the other. He caught a break when he used his extended baton swipe Marlena backwards into Marc, who had the misfortune of stepping right into her path.

“CATACLYSM!” Chat summoned, and slammed his hand onto the floor.

A black lightning-like streak ziz-zagged across the floor and split in two to create a circle around the tangled up pair. Within seconds the floor beneath them disappeared, and with a startled yell the mind controlled fighters fell from sight to the level below.

It wouldn’t stop them for long, but as Chat told Ladybug, all he needed was to buy some time.

Chat sprinted out of the room and down the hallway. The restaurant was on this level, and if Chloé was hiding on this floor then it would be the kitchen - lots of little hiding spaces, a dumbwaiter for a quick escape, even weapons to defend herself if it came down to it.

Just as Chat burst into the dining room a sparkling stream of red ladybugs burst out the swinging doors, briefly enveloping Chat and lifting away the bruises he had honestly forgot about before moving onto the rest of the hotel.

“Huh. Guess Ladybug didn’t need my help today,” he commented, feeling proud of her for defeating the Akuma so fast and yet a little sad that she hadn’t needed him.

He still had a couple minutes before his transformation dropped, and he still wanted to catch Ladybug on more time before they split for the day, so he still hurried over to the kitchen. Ladybug was exiting the swinging doors just as he arrived.

“Excellent job, my-” Chat started to say, only to stop when he got a good look at his partner.

The black spotted heroines face was pale and her breathing erratic. When she looked up at him, she was startled, but put on a smile for him that didn’t reach her eyes.

“Chat, thanks for your help, I wouldn’t have made it in time if you hadn’t keep Cheese and Dessert off by back!” She said, in a voice a pitch too high to be normal.

She held up her fist for their traditional victory fist pump, but instead of bumping it with his own Chat held it in both his hands. Holding it, he could feel how hard Ladybug was trembling.

“What happened in there?” He asked. “Are you alright?”

Ladybug quickly glanced way before she shook her head. “I’m fine, everyone’s fine now, the cure took care of everything.”

“You don’t look fine to me,” Chat pointed out.

Ladybug dropped her eyes. “It was….close. I don’t really want to talk about it.”

Both of their miraculouses beeped.

“I understand,” Chat said, giving her hand a squeeze in both his own. “Just remember I’m there for you when you need it, alright?”

Ladybug gave him a watery smile, a real one this time, and Chat felt his heart break for her as they parted to de-transform in private.

His partner had always seemed so strong and confident and untouchable before. What had _happened_ in there to do this to her?

~*~*~*~*~*~

Any other time, Marinette would have been pleased and honored to have been invited by her world famous chef uncle to help him prepare his Celestial Soup for a fresh judging. Instead, Marinette begged off as politely as she could to escape the kitchen.

Wang seemed genuinely disappointed, but after what happened earlier…well, being in the kitchen for however long it took to prepare the dish anew was more than Marinette could handle right then.

Besides, she had something more important to do.

“Marinette, are you going to be okay to talk to her right now?” Tikki asked worriedly as they rode the elevator up.

“I’m honestly not sure,” Marinette admitted. “But I can’t wait any longer, not after what just happened.

When Marinette knocked this time, the door was answered by the Bourgeois family butler.

“May I help you?” He asked, prim and proper.

“Oh! I was just, I…forgot something! On this floor! Because Jagged Stone! Wait, that was last week, what I meant was, uh…” Marinette fumbled, not having planned an explanation as to why she would need to talk to Chloé in private out of nowhere.

However, something softened in the butlers expression and he stood off to the side to let Marinette in.

“Mademoiselle Bourgeois is out on the balcony,” he told her. “She has not been…herself lately, but she won’t say anything. I hope you can help her.”

Marinettes eyes widened, but she gave the man a grateful nod as she hurried in.

True to his word, Chloé was out on the balcony, hands on the railing as she took in the city scape. She half turned her head at the sound of the glass door sliding open, but her only reaction was a small frown as she saw who it was.

“Here to yell at me on your uncles behalf again?” Chloé asked snidely as Marinette shut the door behind her.

“I came for you,” Marinette said, coming to stand next to the blonde. “I get that you’re upset about what we found out, and I don’t like that you’ve been taking it out on me, but I’m still _here_ for you.”

“That so?” Chloé asked, voice as tight as her white-knuckled grip on the railing. Marinette nodded, too focused on the speech she had been desperately trying to put together ever since the event in the kitchen.

“I get wanting to act like you’re okay, because I’ve done it to. I hoped that if I acted like I was okay, then I would _be_ okay. But…but anyone would be upset if they found out they traded their soul for a wish, and-”

“I didn’t trade my soul.”

Marinette eyes just about bugged out of her head. Chloé actually smirked in amusement at the asian girls expression.

In answer, Chloé lifted her left hand and with a twirl of her wrist she summoned her Soul Gem.

“See? It’s right here, in my hand. Kyubey may have removed it from my body, but he didn’t take it away from me. It’s still _mine_ , I didn’t loose it, it’s just in a new package. If anything, he did me a favor because I’m basically invincible now. I could throw myself off this balcony and smash every bone in my body and I’d be perfectly fine.”

Marinettes hands came up, as if ready to grab the blonde. Chloé noticed the reaction and rolled her eyes.

“Calm down Dupain-Cheng, I’m not going to do it,” she said in a flat tone as her gem flashed back into a ring on her middle finger again. “That much blood would ruin this outfit forever, and it’s my favorite.”

Marinette started to shake her head in disbelief, but caught herself.

“But…you made your wish expecting that being a Magical Girl was only temporary,” she pointed out. “Now that you know it’s not…don’t you regret it?”

Chloé turned to face Marinette, eyes glaring with simmering rage.

“What do you want me to say? You want to hear how sad I am and how unfair it all it? You want to see me cry and fall to pieces because of my own damn choice? I can’t take it back, I can’t undo what I did, so regretting anything would be utterly pointless and a waste of time.

“So no, I DON’T regret my wish, because regret isn’t going to do me any good!”

Chloé spun away, putting her back to Marinette and crossing her arms. “Now get out of here. I’m not going to play your games any longer.”

Marinette reared her head back at that.

“I don’t know what you mean by that, but I’m not playing games with you,” she insisted. “You can act like you aren’t bothered at all, but I understand that you-”

“You don’t understand ANYTHING about me!” Chloé snapped, still facing away. “You just see whatever you want to see so you can pretend to be the hero! You want me to be the victim so you can ‘save’ me, but if I’m not a victim then I have to be the villain instead so you can stand up to me, right?!”

“What? Chloé what are you-”

“Yes I asked Daddy to make you the gofer last week! What, would you rather be washing sheets? Or scrubbing toilets? Stare at numbers all day with the auditor? You’re a people person, you LIKE talking to people and being disgustingly helpful, and being a gofer at least gave you a chance to get out of the hotel and maybe meet a cool guest! It’s also an easy way to show what a hard worker you are, which made it easier for you win the prize at the end.

“But since it was MY idea, then clearly the only reason I’d do it was because I was trying to give you the “worst” job just to be mean, right? Because I’ll only ever be the the “mean” girl, right?!”

Marinettes jaw had been slowly falling, and a pit growing in her stomach.

“You…you made me gofer as a favor?” She asked, Tikki’s words about assigning motivation ringing in her head.

Chloé barked out a laugh.

“You can’t believe it, huh? After all the time we spent together, after finding out why I do what I do, you STILL can’t see me as anything other than the Queen Bitch of the school! And if you’re only willing to see me as either victim or villain in your story, well, then I’d rather be a villain!”

Marientte gasped. “The soup…?”

Chloé turned her head to glare coldly at Marinette over her shoulder.

“Now get out, or I’ll have Jean Pierre throw you out.”

Marinette lifted a hand as if to reach out to Chloé, but hesitated and pulled it back instead. She took a step back, then another, until she was hurrying to escape before Chloé could see the tears beginning to well up.

Once Marinette was gone, Chloé took a deep breath, held it, and released. Idly she rubbed her hand along the inside of her right arm, the phantom pain still tingling.

~*~*~*~*~*~

_Earlier_

The Brat was a slippery one, Kung Food would give her that. Ever since she escaped initial capture (who’d’ve thought a pampered spoiled rich girl would have such a mean right hook?) Kung Food had dogged her from floor to floor, up, around, and down again as she tried to give him the slip. He had been forced to use his minions to keep Ladybug and Chat Noir at bay while he hunted down his quarry.

_“Do no forget our agreement, Kung Food,”_ Hawkmoth smooth voice reminded him in his head. _“You may have your revenge and create your culinary masterpiece, but I still require that you obtain Ladybug and Chat Noirs Miraculous for me in turn.”_

“Yes Hawkmoth, I will take their Miraculous before I add them to my soup, but I will not allow the Brat to make a fool of me again!” Kung Food replied as he left the hero’s to fight his last two minions.

He burst into the spacious restaurant dining area just in time to see a flash of yellow disappear behind the swinging kitchen doors.

The Akumitzed chef grinned in anticipation.

He stalked over and with both hands he threw the kitchen doors open wide with his entrance. “BRAT!”

The girl yelped and nearly fell over backwards as she scrambled away. Desperately she reached over to a nearby knife block and pulled out the first handle her fingers touched, holding the blade in front of her with both hand like it was a sword.

“Stay back! I have a…knife.”

She trailed off when she got a good look at the three and a half inch paring knife she had armed herself with.

The rotund man let out a loud belly laugh at the pathetic display, and from his bag he pulled out a giant asparagus spear with a razor sharp tip.

“Do not worry, for you shall have the honor of being the main ingredient in my Brat Soup! Then all will know that I am the Worlds Greatest Chef!”

The girl blinked at him, and something flickered across her face. The fear was replaced by blank surprise, as if she had realized something unexpected and didn’t know how to react yet.

She smiled and let out a giggle.

The smile grew wider and the giggle turned into a loud chuckle.

Then her lips stretched into a grotesque parody of a smile as she laughed loudly and maniacally, throwing her head back and dropping her hands to her side, the paring knife still held loosely in her left hand.

Kung Food paused in confusion at the strange reaction, and even a bit of Hawkmoth confusion leaked through the bond.

“Does being made in to soup amuse you, Brat?” Kung Food asked, jabbing his spear toward the laughing girl threateningly.

The girl gulped in a few heavy, ragged breaths and dropped her head again, face flushed and still grinning.

“Nah, I still think soup is disgusting and I’d rather pass. I just realized how stupid it is to be afraid of you.” She said.

Rage bubbled up in the chef as the girl held up her right arm and pulled the sleeve of her cardigan back, but any response he had died when she placed the tip of her knife on her inner elbow.

“This is how not afraid of you I am,” she said, and slashed a long red gash all the way up to her wrist.

The sheer shock pierced the Akuma-induced fog that settled over his rational mind, enough to send him stumbling back in horror and dropping the spear. He felt an echo of that same horror from Hawkmoth as he watched through Kung Foods eyes.

The girls grin widened, as did her eyes, her pupils mere pinpricks, her arm gushing blood on the clean tiled floor.

“See?! You can’t hurt me, I don’t have anything to be afraid of!”

There was as swishing sound of the doors behind him, but Kung Food paid it no heed as the girl brought the knife down again on her upper thigh, ripping it roughly away and leaving a bloody jagged tear in cloth and flesh.

“I’m not afraid of you!”

A slash across her stomach, a stab in her shoulder.

“I’m NOT afraid of you!”

Stab her side, slash the side of her head, a puncture in her neck releasing a _steam_ of blood.

“I’M NOT AFRAID OF YOU!”

Kung Food was frozen in shock and horror as the girl mutilated herself, laughing at the top of her lungs all the while, red overtaking the yellow and white of her clothes, blood puddling at her feet, so much _blood_ , more than any person could survive loosing.

_“Move you fool!”_ Hawkmoth yelled in his head, but he _couldn’t_. Even as the girl, now pale as chalk but still somehow _laughing_ , collapsed to her knees with a splash in a pool of her own blood he still couldn’t _move_.

**“CHLOÉ!!!”**

A red and black figure flashed by, and Ladybug was sliding to her knees besides the girl to catch her just as she started to tilt and fall over, still grinning even as she no longer had the strength to keep laughing.

“LUCKY CHARM!” Ladybug yelled out desperately, swinging her yo-yo up in air while she held the bloodied girl close to her chest.

The yo-yo flashed with creation magic and dropped the summoned charm into Ladybugs waiting hand. She stared at the given object incredulously.

“A comb? I need a tourniquet, or bandages, or, or something! How is a comb supposed to help?!” She cried out, gripping the Lucky Charm angrily.

Ladybug was distraught and distracted. There would never be a better opportunity.

_“MOVE!”_ Hawkmoth yelled again, and this time Kung Food snapped out of his own fog.

“Ladybug!” He called out, removing his chef hat. Ladybug twisted around to look back at him, still hugging the fallen girl close.

Kung Food tore the hat in half and released the black butterfly.

Ladybugs eyes widened, but she was quick to drop the comb and pull out her yo-yo to snatch the butterfly out of the air as it fluttered by.

She hesitated a moment, glancing at the girl limp against her. She then set the yo-yo down on the floor, cringing at the blood, and traced a finger up the center to release the now purified Akuma.

“Bye bye little butterfly,” she said quietly, as if the words themselves were their own good luck charm. With a toss of the comb she shouted “MIRACULOUS LADYBUG!”

After the stream of glittering ladybugs passed through, Cheng Wang would regain himself in a sparkling clean kitchen with no memory of what he had seen. He’d be shocked to see Ladybug herself helping the shaky Bourgeois girl to her feet, but rather than feeling the anger and resentment toward the blonde that he did before, he’d only feel a deep yet inexplicable sense of fear.

Not of her, but for her. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chloés breakdown was inspired in part by Higurashi no Naku Koro ni (When the Cry). Great anime, great visual novel, but definitely not for the faint of heart. 


	10. Shattered

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter just kept on growing, and growing, and GROWING. But dang it, I knew exactly where I wanted to stop and I wasn't going to let chatty characters stop me!

Gabriel realized full well that Émilie would not have approved of Hawkmoth akumitizing people who would naturally target Chloé Bourgeois. His wife had always nursed a bit of a soft spot for their sons childhood friend, and had even toyed with a romantic hope that the pair would grow up to be childhood sweethearts. She used to joke that the strong-willed Chloé would become the white knight rescuing the gentle damsel-in-distress Adrian.

He had asked her if that made him the dragon in this story. She had laughed, and never answered.

Personally, he didn’t see Adrian and Chloé ever becoming romantically involved. But then again, it wasn’t until three months into his own relationship with Émilie that Gabriel discovered they’d actually been dating the entire time, so what did he know?

Regardless of his wife’s hypothetical disapproval, the girl was just too useful to ignore. She was remarkably efficient at priming those around her for akumitization, knowing what to do or what to say to cut people deepest, and did so consistently enough that she removed half the work he needed to find potential candidates.

If it hadn’t been for her well-known hero worship of Ladybug, Hawkmoth would have seriously considered approaching her for an alliance. As willful as she was, the girls paradoxical arrogance and poor self-esteem would make her easy to manipulate.

Then again, while easy to manipulate she would ironically remain difficult to control, making her a risk. She was like a raging river - she could be diverged, but not stopped, not once she saw something that she wanted.

That had been one of the things Émilie liked best about her. Gabriel, not so much. It reminded him too much of Audrey.

For now, she was most useful as an unwitting tool. It got to a point where he once tried sending a butterfly to tail her, ready to akumitize the next person she upset and save himself a little more time and effort.

It failed, but not for the reason he expected.

Much to his shock, Chloé herself was oddly difficult for Hawkmoth to “see” once he was actually trying to look for her. Most peoples emotions were like a concert, various emotions rising and falling as they mixed together in a cacophony of conflicting sounds and colors that still came together in the unified whole that made up a person. Chloé, however, was so dim and quiet it was difficult for him to stay focused on her. It was possible, but required far more effort and concentration than anyone else, and it only worked if he already knew where she was physically present.

If other peoples emotions were like listening to an orchestra, Chloés emotions were like listening to an echo.

Had it been someone known for being generally calm, even-tempered, or even apathetic, Hawkmoth would have understood. That it was Chloé, loud, dramatic, prideful Chloé who seemed guided by nothing BUT her emotions was a surprise.

The implication that she was faking emotions she wasn’t feeling were…unsettling.

He asked Nooroo about it, and the kwami had insisted what they were sensing from the young girl didn’t match what he had sensed from other sociopaths. However, he couldn’t offer an explanation as so why she was so different from anyone else either. He only shrugged and remorsefully said “I wish I could tell you, but I truly can’t.”

The little creature seemed genuinely regretful that he didn’t know what was affecting the girl either.

That left him back at square one; Hawkmoth periodically searching the city for useful Akuma candidates, and keeping half an eye on the school and hotel for an easy opportunity.

He justified allowing Chloé to be in danger again and again by rationalizing that, so long as he could get the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculouses, it didn’t matter what damage was wrought or who got hurt in the process. With the power offered by the magical jewelry, he’d have the power to not only save his dear wife, but re-write reality itself so none of this ever happened. Knowing that, it was easier to detach himself from the current world and the people in it. After all, if a house was already slated for demolition, what did it matter if it caught fire first?

It was easy to detach himself, up until the girl took a knife and slashed her own arm open.

For a moment, Hawkmoth literally could not comprehend what he was seeing. Even as Kung Food stumbled back, Hawkmoth could only stare through his Akumas eyes and dumbly wonder where all the red had come from.

_“See?”_ Chloé had declared with wide eyes and a crazed smile, holding up her eviscerated arm as it gushed blood from the wound. _“You can’t hurt me, I don’t have anything to be afraid of!”_

She brought the knife down into her thigh, her stomach, shoulder, neck, she was _covered_ in blood from her self perforation and yet she was still _laughing_ as she stripped Hawkmoth of all power to hurt her first.

But he wasn’t Hawkmoth anymore.

He was Gabriel Agreste, watching a little girl he’d known since she was three years old mutilating herself to death with mad glee.

“Move you fool!” He yelled, but his useless Akuma just stood there, frozen, even as Chloé collapsed to her knees with a splash in a pool of her own blood, finally weakened by the lethal levels of blood loss.

**_“CHLOÉ!!!”_ **

And then Ladybug was there, catching the collapsing girl and summoning a Lucky Charm, except it wasn’t the charm she wanted because it wasn’t going to help save the dying girl in her ams, and-

For a moment, he considered Ladybugs earrings.

This world was going to burn away anyway, what did it matter if the girl died right now when he could easily restore her in a new world?

But as easy as it was to detach himself from the larger world and the anonymous, faceless masses in it, he found he still couldn’t do it when faced with the familiar face of a child that had taken her own life _because of him_.

“MOVE!” Hawkmoth commanded again, and this time Kung Food responded, tearing his hat in two so as to release the butterfly for Ladybug to purify. The last thing he saw before his connection with his Akuma cut off was a wave of glittering ladybugs.

“Dark Wings Fall,” he commanded. The transformation fell away and Nooroo re-appeared, looking shaken and sickened by what they had seen.

Gabriel drew upon his discipline and icy demeanor to keep himself standing tall and expression impassive, but from the way the Kwami was looking at him, he wasn’t fooled.

“What we just saw,” Gabriel asked slowly, “is it related to why her emotions only sound like an echo of a person?”

Nooroo shrugged and shook his head. “Impossible to say, Master. We don’t even know if Chloé herself realizes she’s different from everyone else around her. If she does, perhaps we just saw her mental breakdown over it. If she doesn’t, perhaps her reaction was primed by something else and this akuma was just the last straw. I don’t believe her condition would automatically dispose her toward self harm though.”

Gabriel nodded slowly as he took a steadying breath.

“And would the Miraculous Cure be enough to save her, even if the…wounds were self-inflicted?” He asked, with only the faintest tremor on ‘wounds’ betraying him.

Nooroo hesitated a moment before answering.

“The Miraculous Cure will restore anything affected by other Miraculous,” he answered slowly. “Chloé hurting herself was triggered by being cornered by an Akuma, so that _should_ qualify.”

“Should.” Gabriel repeated flatly. Nooroo bowed his head.

“I’m sorry, I can’t speak from personal experience if it’ll work,” he admitted.

_Because the butterfly miraculous isn’t supposed to be used to hurt people_ , went unsaid.

Gabriel took a deep, steadying breath, fixed his collar, straightened his jacked, and exited the hidden room to his office, where Nathalie was waiting.

His assistant was understandably alarmed when he asked her to check for any news of casualties with the recent akuma attack, but ever the professional she did as he ordered without question. When she confirmed there were no casualties, the sheer relief had Gabriel leaning onto his desk for support.

Nathalie didn’t press for answers, but Gabriel told her what happened anyway. The woman had to quickly set her tablet down on the same desk before she dropped it from limp fingers.

“Are we going to tell her father?” She asked. Gabriel shook his head.

“If she’s otherwise been acting normally, I have no way to justify why I would know how…unbalanced she has become,” he pointed out. “But if she has become this dangerous to herself, she could prove dangerous to those around her if she breaks again.”

Nathalie nodded in understanding.

~*~*~*~*~*~

The Agreste household ran on predictability and routine, clean and orderly where everyone had a set purpose and schedule. While allowances were made for some flexibility, too much deviation from established routine was rarely tolerated by the head of the house.

So Adrian could be forgiven for his exaggerated double-take upon seeing his father sitting at the table at dinner time rather than taking his meal in his office as he was prone to do.

“F-father?” Adrian stuttered, eyes wide with shock.

“Adrian,” Gabriel greeted curtly, barely glancing up from his tablet. “I understand there was an Akuma at the hotel today. I trust you were not harmed?”

Adrian slowly slid into his seat on the opposite end of the table where his father sat.

“Um, no, I was fine,” he answered, clearly confused and unsure what to make of the current situation. “I mean, I got stuck inside the hotel, but Kung Food didn’t really care about anyone else in the building so it didn’t matter.”

The chef came in carrying two dinner plates, and Gabriel put his tablet to the side as the first was set in front of him.

“I understand the Akuma was focused on Chloé again,” he said. “While I am glad you stayed out of danger, considering your friendship I would have expected you to try something foolish to help save her.”

Adrian dropped his attention to his plate.

“….Ladybug and Chat Noir showed up almost right away,” he explained evenly. “I figured I shouldn’t get in their way.”

“A wise decision,” Gabriel said simply, sounding less like a compliment and more like a statement of fact.

The pair fell silent after that, the only sounds being the occasional clink-clank of utensils on plates. It wasn’t until they both finished their meals and the plates were being cleared away that Gabriel cleared his throat again.

“How…has…Chloé been lately?” He asked haltingly.

Adrian couldn’t stop the slight rise of his eyebrows in surprise, both at the question and how uncharacteristically hesitant Gabriel sounded asking it.

“She seemed okay after the Akuma was defeated,” Adrian answered. “Mostly she was mad about Cheng Shifu getting a second chance of judging, and for getting kicked off the panel.”

Gabriel ‘hm’d’ quietly and pressed his lips together, silent for a moment of contemplation while the chef brought out dessert.

“How has she been at school?” He asked, tone as distant as ever. “Any changes of behavior that you have noticed?”

Adrian straightened in his seat, heedless of the bowl of sorbet being placed in front of him.

“Why are you asking?” Adrian queried.

Gabriel gave his son a sharp look, who was quick to drop his eyes again. The boy rubbed the back of his neck, brow furrowed and expression conflicted as he appeared to war within himself.

“I want a frank answer, Adrian,” Gabriel said sharply. “If you have noticed disturbing behavior from her, it would be best for you to report it to me.”

Adrian flinched slightly. Gabriel softened marginally.

“I asked for your benefit and hers,” he added a little more quietly.

Adrian kept his eyes down, but his shoulders slumped. He picked up a spoon and poked at his melting sorbet, but only swirled it around distractedly rather than taking a bite.

“Honestly? When we’re at school it’s like her worst traits are times ten and her best qualities are gone,” he admitted. “She’s so much more…she’s always been kinda harsh and sarcastic, but now she’s just so pointlessly mean and cruel, and I don’t…I don’t understand why, she doesn’t have to be like that. Plus she’s been really-”

Adrian abruptly cut himself off, his stirring hand freezing.

“She’s been, what, exactly?” Gabriel prodded. Adrian glanced up at his father, then down again.

“She’s never been mean to me, but she has been really flirty and touchy with me, way more than she used to be, and I don’t know if she’s being weird or if I’m being weird for _thinking_ that it’s weird,” he admitted, words coming in a rush toward the end.

Gabriels grip tightened on his spoon.

“I see.”

For a long moment, he said nothing. Then, he picked up his tablet again and began tapping.

“I have heard stories of Chloés conduct, and the danger it has been placing her in with Akumas,” he said as he tapped away. “With what you have now told me, it is clear that any further association with her will only be detrimental for your well being and reputation. Of course, so long as you are in the same class some association will be inevitable.”

Adrian straightened in alarm, expression fearful. Gabriel set his tablet down, his own expression still as cool and professional as ever.

“I do not yet see the need to withdraw you from school,” he continued. “However your teachers will be informed that the two of you are not to be assigned together for any more assignments. In addition, you will not be permitted to visit Le Grand Paris unless it’s already confirmed she will not be there, and she will be informed that she is no longer welcomed here either. You may still have your lunches at school on occasion if you wish, but I expect you to inform her that she is to keep her distance, and that you will come here if she does not respect that. I will be speaking to André as well if she doesn’t keep her distance from you.”

Something flashed across Adrians expression, his hands fisting on the table. Gabriel kept his head high and met his sons eyes, fully prepared for whatever argument the soft hearted boy would attempt against what he would surely perceive as an overly harsh reaction over his childhood ‘friend’.

Instead, what little fight Adrian had drained out of him and the boy merely lowered his head submissively.

“Yes, Father.”

And that was the end of it.

Gabriel would admit to himself he didn’t expect Adrian to accept being told to functionally sever his ties with his oldest friend so easily, even as he was slightly relived by the easy acquiesce. Clearly the two were not as close as they once were.

Émilie would have been sad to see it.

Gabriel looked down at the mostly melted raspberry sorbet, now less dessert and more soupy red liquid

_Blonde hair half red with blood right arm ripped open leaving muscles exposed and white bits of fat with gushing liquid as the knife came down again and again_ I’m not afraid of you! _screaming and laughing_

Gabriel abruptly pushed himself away from the table and walked off without sparing his son a second glance, too focused on keeping his expression impassive and the sudden nausea down.

~*~*~*~*~*~

The night after the Kung Food Akuma was their Saturday patrol. Chat Noir greeted Ladybug with a bow and a flirtation as he usually did, and Ladybug responded with a long-suffering eye roll and a good-humored deflection like she usually did.

But Chat was almost completely silent for the following 20 minutes, which was NOT what he usually did.

It was after Ladybug had to call his name twice to get his attention that she had had enough.

She waited until they landed upon the next roof to grab him by the arm before he could take his next leap.

“Chat, is everything okay? You’re not usually so quiet like this,” she asked him, trying to convey as much honest concern as she could.

It didn’t seem to work, as Chat only looked down abashed as he rubbed the back of his neck.

“Sorry M’lady,” he said. “It’s something to do with my civilian life, so I can’t really talk about it. And besides, it’s nothing compared to what you’re dealing with, I don’t want to be a bother.”

Something in his vulnerable expression, the way he wouldn’t meet her eyes and hunched his shoulders, the way he seemed almost _ashamed_ that he dared to have his own personal issues, filled Ladybug with a deep sense of pity and a fierce protectiveness toward her friend.

Also a vague but unmistakable desire to hit whomever made her kitty feel like his emotions were “a bother”.

Instead, she laid a comforting hand on his upper arm.

“That doesn’t mean you aren’t allowed to have your own needs, Chat,” she assured him. “You’re my friend, and even if you can’t share specifics, you still deserve to be listened to. I won’t make you tell me anything if you don’t want to, but I’m here to listen if you need me.”

Chats eyes turned glassy and he ducked his head, but Ladybug could still make out a smile.

“What’d I do to deserve a partner like you?” He asked.

“That’s my line,” Ladybug replied, smiling at the callback.

Chat had been so generous up to now, providing a listening ear and advice when she got stuck in her own head, amusing her with his silly flirtations but taking her concerns seriously, offering emotional support but giving her the space she asked for.

Being able to pay him back even a fraction in kind filled her heart with warmth.

They sat together against the raised wall of the roof, arms touching. Ladybug looked up at the night sky as she waited for Chat to gather his thoughts.

“Have you…ever had a friend you’ve known forever, only to realize one day that they’ve become someone you don’t recognize anymore?” He finally asked.

Ladybug held up a hand and tilted it back and forth.

“I have friends I’ve known since we were little. We got older, developed new interests, and sometimes drifted apart because we didn’t spend as much time together anymore, but even though we all changed as we got older I wouldn’t go so far as to say I didn’t recognize them anymore as the friends I once had. That’s a normal part of growing up, I think.”

“Well, I basically had only one friend growing up,” Chat explained. “I have more friends now, but for the longest time it was just the two of us. She’s always had a strong personality and sometimes we’d get into fights, but we almost always had a lot of fun. But when I started making other friends, things started to change.”

“Did she get jealous?” Ladybug asked. Chat considered the question for a moment before he shook his head.

“Actually, no. Lots of people would probably assume she’s the jealous type, but she really isn’t. She WANTED me to make more friends, she’s the one who helped me meet my new friends, and she’s never tried to directly interfere with my other friendships.”

Ladybug frowned in confusion. “Okay, so what’s the problem?”

Chat pulled his knees up and crossed his arms over them, going quiet again as he searched for the words to answer. Almost unconsciously, Ladybug rested her hand between his shoulder blades and gently scratched. Chat let out a sigh of contentment and relaxed slightly. That seemed enough to prompt him to continue.

“I don’t know if she’s changed, or if I just never noticed before because I didn’t have any basis of comparison, but she treats everyone else like they’re beneath her, even her so-called best friend. It’s like she honestly believes everyone else exists to either amuse her or serve her. And even though she doesn’t have a problem with me having other friends, she’s been treating me weird too. I…I feel like she sees me more of a possession than as a friend.”

“Like she doesn’t really care how you feel?” Ladybug asked. Chat nodded.

“And the worst part is, no matter how much I go over what I remember of her when we were younger, I can’t tell if this is something new or if she’s ALWAYS thought of me as her personal toy or whatever, and I just didn’t notice. I feel like…I don’t know if she’s changed or if I just never knew her. But either way it’s hard because I feel like I’ve lost my oldest friend.”

“That sounds awful,” Ladybug said, bringing up her own knees and leaning forward to match Chats posture. “I’m so sorry you’re going through that. Have you tried talking to her?”

Chat shook his head.

“For a long while now, every time we ‘talk’ it’s mostly just her aggressively flirting with me. We haven’t hung out together just the two of us in months, and when I think about being alone with her for hours on end I feel almost nauseous. And honestly? I don’t even know _how_ to have that talk, and every time I think to try I chicken out instead.”

Chat gave Ladybug a rueful smile. “Some super hero I am. I’ll gladly fight the worst Akuma Hawkmoth can send, but talking to her has me shaking in my boots.”

“You don’t have to care about what Hawkmoth thinks of you and you don’t have to worry about hurting his feelings, there’s no comparison,” Ladybug said firmly. Her tone softened again with her next question.

“I’m sorry if this sounds insensitive, but if you’re so uncomfortable with the way she treats you and everyone else, and if you don’t really spend time together anymore anyway, why do you still consider her a friend?”

Chat dropped his head down. It took a moment for him to answer, and when he did the words came as if they were as heavy as stones.

“Because…in spite of everything she is now, that doesn’t change the fact that she was my only friend for years. She’s been such a huge part of my life for so long, I can’t really imagine her not being a part of it in some way. I can’t just…let go of all our history just like that.”

Ladybug pursed her lips her lips as she considered his answer.

“Loyalty is a noble quality to have in a friend,” she said carefully. “But if you’re not speaking up to her about how she’s treating other people, she may be taking your silence as approval. It sounds like you really need to talk to her, but if she won’t change I think the best thing you can do is break off your friendship with her.”

Chat snapped his head around and was already opening his mouth to protest, but silenced himself as Ladybug raised a hand.

“Please, let me finish. I don’t doubt it’ll be hard, and I wish I could be there to support you when you talk to her. But it really sounds like breaking off your friendship with her is what you need most for your own mental health. And who knows? Maybe that’ll be enough to shock her into changing her behavior. And if it’s not, then she wasn’t a friend worth keeping.”

Chat stared at her for a long moment, before huffing out a humorless laugh.

“Y’know, my father asked about her yesterday,” he said with false lightness. “I told him a little of what she’s been like, and he basically told me to stop spending time with her. I felt like I was _supposed_ to argue, because she’s my friend, but I didn’t. I actually felt _relieved_ to have an excuse to not spend time with her, and then I felt bad for feeling relieved, like I was betraying her.”

“Friendship is a two-way street, and it sounds like she stopped doing her part a long time ago,” Ladybug pointed out softly. “You’re not obligated to put up with toxic behavior forever.”

Chat didn’t respond verbally, but he gave a small nod. Ladybug rested her head on his shoulder as he surreptitiously wiped the corner of his eyes.

~*~*~*~*~*~

The following Monday was class picture day, and it was while she was sitting with Alya on the school steps as their class waited their turn that her friend quietly asked “Hey girl, are you doing okay? You’ve seemed pretty down lately.”

Marinette gave her friend the best smile she could muster.

“Thanks, but I’m fine. Just tired is all.”

Alya nodded in understanding. “You have been super busy lately. Want to take the night off and come to my place? We can find a dumb movie and eat junk food, we haven’t done that in ages.”

Marinette’s smile turned a little more sincere at that, even as a bit of guilt for neglecting her best friend niggled at her. It was tempting, so very tempting to have just one night where she didn’t have to think about _anything_ at all, where she could just be a normal teenager hanging out with her friend.

Her eyes darted past Alya for just a moment to Chloé behind her, standing with Sabrina and intent on something on her phone.

“That sounds great Alya, but I’m not sure I can make it tonight,” Marinette said.

Disappointment flickered across Alya’s expression, but it passed quickly.

“That’s okay, it’s an open invitation,” she said.

The pair were quickly distracted by Rose and Juleka discussing the latter’s so-called photo-curse, and then Vincent was calling them up.

Marinette was being honest when she said she was tired, but it was a very small word for how she was feeling.

She’d think of having a picture with Adrian and the possibility of being right next to him for the picture, and she’d be filled with effervescent bubbles of happiness. Then she’d remember that Chat could very well be breaking up with his childhood friend on her suggestion, and she’d feel guilty for getting excited over something so small and petty while the boy she considered a best friend on par with Alya was dealing with something so sad and difficult. She’d scoff and get annoyed at Chloé getting dramatic and insisting she had to stand next to Adrian for the picture, in spite of the boy herself harshly telling her to stop making a big deal of it, and then she’d feel ashamed of herself for being judgmental when she knew perfectly well that Chloé was barely holding herself together these days.

So yes, Marinette was getting tired and running out of emotional energy.

But she was still Ladybug at heart, and she was still compelled to help the people who needed it when they were in front of her. Even if it was something as small as making sure Juleka wasn’t forgotten and encouraging her to not let Chloé literally push her out of the way.

As for Chloé herself, Marinette reasoned that perhaps getting the spot next to Adrian was just an excuse to be difficult, and Vincent was on such a tight schedule that too many delays would surely frustrate him. He didn’t strike Marinette as someone who would be at risk of being targeted by a Witch, and thus would benefit from the emotional release that being Akumitized could offer, but then again she and Chloé never discussed what she looked for in potential victims, so what did she know?

That benefit of the doubt was thrown out the window when Juleka went missing briefly and Chloé snagged the coveted spot next to Adrian, then manipulated Principle Damocles to not allow a reshoot to include poor Juleka.

Marinette was not going to let that stand, which is how she ended up sneaking into Principle Damocles’ office and searching through Vincents phone to find and delete the class picture he took. If forcing a re-shoot was what it took to make sure Juleka was included, then so be it!

“Someone’s coming!” Tikki quickly warned her, and Marinette didn’t hesitate to dive under the desk just before the door opened.

“I know you’re in here, Dupain-Cheng!” Chloé’s voice rang out loudly in the relatively small space. “Just what are you up to?”

“I told you this was a bad idea,” Tikki chided quietly.

Realizing that the jig was up, Marinette quietly bade Tikki to hide in her purse and swiftly removed the memory card from the camera before standing up.

There was Chloé, along with Sabrina standing just a little behind her. Unsurprisingly, Chloé reacted as if she had found Marinette herself, rather than her willingly coming out.

“There you are! Just what do you think you’re doing, Dupain-Cheng?” Chloé demanded, slamming both palms down and leaning over the desk.

“Making sure the picture YOU ruined gets fixed!” Marinette shot back. “We all know you’re the reason Juleka didn’t make it back in time!”

Chloés eyes narrowed, but it was Sabrina who responded.

“If the picture gets deleted, Principal Damocles will know you were the one who did it!” She said in a slight sing-song. She held up her phone to show a video of Marinette entering the office.

Marinette’s eyes widened at the blackmail, then shifted over to Chloé.

Unlike Sabrina, there was no glee or joy in Chloés expression at having the damning evidence again Marinette. There was anger, but it was cold and unmoving.

She had Marinette over a barrel, but took no pleasure in it.

“I haven’t deleted the picture yet,” Marinette said to Chloé. “Delete the video, and I’ll give you the camera.”

A moments pause, then Chloé looked over to Sabrina to give her a curt nod.

Sabrina held the phone up so Marinette could clearly see her hovering her finger over the delete button. In exchange Marinette set the camera down on the desk and slid it towards Chloé, but she did not release her grip on it until Sabrina hit delete. Chloé was snapping the camera up almost immediately.

Marinette came around the desk and was heading for the door when she felt an iron grip on her arm.

“Just how dumb do you think I am?” She growled. “Where is the memory card?”

Of course Chloé would realize right away the memory card was removed when she found no pictures saved on the camera.

Marinette’s expression hardened to match Chloés, her will as strong and her cause righteous.

“I get why you can be mean sometimes, but what you did to Juleka was going too far!” She said. “This is just you being selfish! Do you have any idea how much you hurt her, just so you could stand next to Adrian for ten seconds? Do you think he’ll be happy with what you did? He doesn’t belong to you!”

The instant those words passed her lips Marinette was being shoved backwards into the bookcase with so much force she could feel it rattling, and then Chloé was pinning her back by the shoulders, causing the shelving to dig painfully into her back. Her eyes were crazed, pupils mere pinpricks, and her voice nearly cracked as she yelled

“HE I **S** MINE!”

Marinette gasped, and even Sabrina looked shocked.

Chloé wasn’t done. She wasn’t yelling anymore, but there was an intensity to her eyes that made Marinette feel like she burning.

“Everything I’ve done has been for HIS happiness! I’ve done more for him than everyone else in his life combined! Every sacrifice has been for HIS sake, and for as long as I still live I will Not. Share. Him!”

The silence that followed was deafening.

Marinette was utterly frozen. It wasn’t shock anymore, but rather an overwhelming sense of clarity that left her breathless.

Without breaking eye contact, Marinette dug into her pocket and delicately held up the memory card in front of her.

Neither girl paid attention to Sabrina, the way she was covering her mouth and stepping away from Chloé, eyes wide with disbelief and fear. When she rushed out the door a moment later, her departure was a barely processed event. Chloé was too focused on taking the memory card back, handling it as carefully as if it were a baby bird, and Marinette still reeling from her new understanding.

“Your wish…you used your wish to help Adrian?”

Chloé jumped back as if she’d been burned. That was all the confirmation Marinette needed.

Chloé was quick to recover, and even as she responded she busied herself with slotting the card back into the camera and going through the pictures to find their class.

“I don’t know how much time I have left, only that I have to fight for literally every day of life. So for whatever time I have, I’m going to hoard every moment and every memory with Adrian that I can. If this picture is the last picture we have together, then it will **be** of us together. Everyone else can have as much of him as they want after I’m dead.”

“You’re not-”

It was a reflex to try and reassure her, but Marinette found she couldn’t bring herself to finish what she was saying.

She couldn’t promise that Chloé would be triumphant against every Witch she’ll ever fight, that’d she always have enough Grief Seeds to keep her Soul Gem charged and purified, that when other Magical Girls came they would not attempt to fight her for territory. She couldn’t promise that there would be time for more pictures, more time to make new memories.

She couldn’t promise anything at all. 

From her profile, Marinette could see Chloés expression soften as she stopped at one picture, gazing tenderly at it for a long moment. Satisfied, she set the camera down.

That was when they started to hear faint screaming outside.

“What was that?” Marinette asked as she faced the door, straightening up and tensing her body as she readied for action.

However Chloé was putting a hand on her shoulder and gently pulling her back, eyes steely.

“You hide back under the desk, I’ll see what’s going on,” she ordered.

Seeing the chance transform in private if need be, Marinette nodded and followed the instruction, but still peeking out around the edge so she could see out the door. Chloé rolled her eyes at her, but didn’t argue.

She threw the door open and stepped out, only to be taken by surprise by a garishly pink and white figure with Y shaped braids falling from above.

“There you are at last!” The mystery girl crowed. “Chloé Bourgeois!”

“Who are you?” Chloé demanded angrily. The figure didn’t bother to answer, only laughed mockingly as she lifted one hand.

“Take a good look at me because I am your future face!”

For half a second Chloé looked genuinely offended.

“Absolutely NOT!”

Chloé violently shoved the taller girl back with enough force to send her flying. The girl let out a high pitched yelp as she tumbled back out of sight behind the door frame, and Chloé took the chance to run the opposite way. Less than a second later a beam of light shot past the door way, and from Chloés outraged cry it hit its mark.

Marinette ducked back behind the desk and Tikki darted up out of the purse.

“Looks like Hawkmoth has chosen Juleka for his next akuma,” the kwami observed.

Marinette had almost forgotten about the goth girl. While she now understood why Chloé had been so desperate to take the spot next to Adrian, it didn’t erase the hurt she put Juleka through. It didn’t justify it.

Of course Hawkmoth would take advantage of that.

“I’ll have to find another way to help Juleka get her picture after I free her from the akuma,” Marinette said decisively. “Tikki, Spots On!”

~*~*~*~*~*~

While everyone trapped in the school had the same body, it made it easy for Sabrina to hide from Chloé but impossible to find Adrian, or even verify if he was trapped with everyone else or if he was one of the lucky few to escape early. Once the Miraculous Cure swept over them, it made searching for Adrian much easier but avoiding Chloé much harder.

Sabrina couldn’t decide which she preferred.

She caught a lucky break when Chloé decided to retreat to the girls bathroom to touch up her appearance, something guaranteed to take up the lunch period they had left. Even better, when Sabrina tried checking the school entrance she was just in time to see Adrian running up from whatever hiding spot he found for the attack.

Unfortunately, Alya, Nino, Rose, Juleka, Alix, and Kim had gathered at the steps to spend the rest of their free time, and were waving the young model over to join them.

Sabrina’s first inclination was to retreat and wait for a better opportunity. But she was smart enough to realize that if she didn’t do this now, she’ll never gather the nerve to do it again. And while she was usually perfectly happy to follow the lead of others, being a police officers daughter still ingrained in her a sense of duty deep within her.

Granted it wasn’t the same sense of “duty” that Ladybug and Chat Noir had, but it was duty all the same.

So Sabrina sucked in her breath, straightened her shoulders, and marched purposely down the steps towards Adrian.

Only to immediately quail when the group noticed her approach and half of them started glaring.

“What do YOU want?” Alix demanded, fists on her hips.

Sabrina started to curl into herself, fighting the urge to run now that she didn’t having Chloés domineering personality to back her up. But she held her ground and turned her attention to Adrian, who was regarding her with careful curiosity.

“I…I need…I need to talktoyouinprivate!”

The boys eyebrows shot up in surprise, but it was Nino who responded.

“Why? So Chloé can try another one of her tricks?” He asked as he crossed his arms. “No thanks, we’re not playing her game anymore. We all know you’re the one who trapped Juleka in the bathroom, even if Chloé was the one who ordered it.”

Juleka didn’t say anything, but her crossed arms, tight shoulders, and glaring exposed eye communicated her anger clearly enough. Rose didn’t look angry, but she was leaning against her friend supportively.

Unable to stand their glares, Sabrina focused on their shoes as she started wringing her hands together.

“I…I know you don’t have any reason to believe anything I say, and I know what we did was wrong, and I’m…I’m sorry about that, it’s just that Chloés been ignoring me for ages and I know it’s because she preferred Marinette and I was hoping if I helped her she’d start liking me again and-”

“Whoa whoa whoa, back up a second!” Alya exclaimed, holding up both hands in a ‘stop’ motion. The rest of the group were also exchanging looks of confusion and disbelief at what Sabrina had just revealed. “What’s this about Chloé liking Marinette? In what alternate universe??”

“Apparently this one,” Sabrina said, stilling wringing her hands but raising her head slightly. “I heard them talking in the bathroom a while back, a little after Animan happened. I don’t remember what they said they were doing, only that Chloé was expecting me to do Marinette’s homework so they could spend more time together.”

Silence as the group absorbed the new information.

“Wow, that sucks,” Kim said sympathetically. Alya, however, was shaking her head.

“I don’t believe it. They HATE each other, why would they be hanging out?!”

Rose let out a huge gasp, clamping both hands over her mouth as her eyes blew wide open in shocked realization.

“The park! Chloé helped Marinette with something back at the park, something really bad! Maybe they started becoming friends after that!”

Everyone exchanged startled looks as they recalled the story and how Marinette addressed the class afterwards. It was a hot topic for a short while, but after so many akuma attacks it ended up getting pushed to back of everyones minds. Not forgotten, exactly, just no longer relevant.

“But why would Marinette hide that from me?” Alya asked, a note of hurt in her voice.

“Did Marientte ever tell you what happened?” Rose asked. When Alya shook her head, Rose suggested, “Then maybe she just wanted to have someone to talk to about that, and she didn’t want you to feel excluded.”

“WAS she hiding it, or did she just not mention it?” Alix asked thoughtfully. “Marientte basically announced to the whole class that whatever happened was none of our business, it’s not like she owes us an explanation.”

“Wait, I heard Chloé sabotaged her uncles soup for that one cooking contest!” Kim pointed out in confusion. “Why would Chloé do that if they were kinda-friends?”

“If they were friends, it didn’t last very long,” Sabrina said, hands still and head fully raised. “After what I saw today, if they weren’t broken up before they definitely are now.”

All attention focused on her again, and Sabrina hunched down again at the attention.

“What did Chloé do?!” Alya demanded angrily, taking a step forward

Sabrina froze, then looked beseechingly at Adrian.

The boy met her eyes for a moment, then let out out a soft sigh before looking towards everyone else.

“Excuse us for a moment, will you?”

He approached Sabrina, and with a gentle hand on her shoulder he guided her down the stairs and around the corner for privacy.

Hidden as they were beneath the stairs, they missed Marinette approaching the group left behind to announce that Vincent had agreed to do a re-shoot after school, and would only receive the news once back in class.

For now, Adrian sat cross legged on the grass and with a wave of his hand he invited Sabrina to take a seat in front of him, which she silently accepted.

“I have to ask, why now?” Adrian asked. “You never seemed to have had a problem with the way Chloé treated Marinette before, or anyone else.”

“To be fair, neither did you since you barely ever said anything,” Sabrina pointed out. Adrian winced.

“Okay, fair point. My question still stands though.”

Sabrina dropped her eyes to her lap, hands beginning to twist around each other again.

“I…I know what Chloé’s like, and Marinette said before that the way she treats me isn’t the way friends should treat each other, but I was fine with it. At least with Chloé I knew what to expect and what she wanted from me, which is more than what I can say of Marinette. But…today she really scared me. I’ve never seen her like that before, and I think you deserve to know what she said about you.”

Adrian felt a rock drop in the pit of his stomach. Part of him wanted to run away, stop up his ears, cover Sabrinas mouth, anything to stop what was coming because he just knew it was going to be everything he had been avoiding for months.

Instead he closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and readied himself.

“Alright,” he said, opening his eyes. “Tell me everything.”

~*~*~*~*~*~

Marinette managed to convince Vincent to hold an after-school photo shoot for the class, but she didn’t have enough time left to inform everyone else about it before class started up again. Fortunately, the classmates she did manage to speak with agreed to pass the word along to everyone else, while of course keeping it from Chloé and Sabrina.

Marinette sympathized with why Chloé was so desperate to have her picture with Adrian, but this was for Juleka now, and it went without saying that she wouldn’t appreciate Chloé being there.

The way Juleka slowly lit up when Marinette told her what was going on, tremulous and unbelieving yet so quietly joyful…well, that was all the proof Marinette needed to know she was doing the right thing.

But now that they were back in class and she didn’t have helping Juleka or defeating Reflecta to focus on, Marinette found she couldn’t stop thinking about what had happened in the principals office.

Here eyes flickered over to Chloé doodling in her tablet, then over to Adrian in front of her as he diligently took notes.

That Chloé had made a wish for Adrian was both an absolute shock and completely unsurprising - after all, Chloé already admitted before her confrontation with Evangeline that she used her wish to save someone she loved, and Marinette could count the number of people she knew Chloé truly cared about on one hand and have fingers left over. But that Chloé used her single wish to help someone else without them ever knowing? It left Marinette reeling.

Of course Chloé declaring Adrian was ‘hers’ was a still barrel of yikes, but that manifested more as Chloé trying to be as close to him as possible as he lived his own life, not isolating him from his friends to keep him to herself. The fact that Adrian often looked uncomfortable with the attention was oddly reassuring - it was at least proof that Chloé didn’t use her wish to make Adrian ‘hers’ against his will.

Naturally Marinette tried to guess what the exact wish could have been, but quickly gave it up as an exercise in futility once it occurred to her that the wish could have either A) resolved an issue in Adrians life that existed before she ever knew him, or B) removed the issue from existence entirely. Either way, it left Marinette with no basis of comparison. The only thing she knew for certain was that it was big enough and serious enough that Chloé was willing to risk her life to make Adrians life better.

If Chloé had used the wish for Adrians sake, then Marinette was forced to acknowledge that Chloé truly did love Adrian, deeply and sincerely. Even if she didn’t know how to show it appropriately.

_‘Not that I’m a great example either,’_ Marinette thought to herself ruefully, recalling all the times she was barely able to function in front of her crush.

Because that’s what it was, wasn’t it? A crush on a cute boy who showed her kindness. She loved the way he made her feel, she knew that his happiness made her happy, like when he mistook her birthday gift to him as one from his father, and she knew without a shred of doubt that she would fight to protect him against anything.

But would she trade her soul for his sake?

Miss Bustiers voice took on a questioning tone, which was enough to snap Marinette back to the present even if she was too late to catch the question herself. Fortunately several hands had gone up, and Marinettes distracted state went unnoticed. Looking down at her notes, she realized that she had actually written her silent question in her notes: _‘would I sell my soul for him?’_

She considered the question for a moment before crossing it out with a frown.

No, that wasn’t a fair question to ask. Kyubey hid the true cost of making a Contract, and there was no way of knowing if Chloé would have still made her wish if she had understood the true cost and commitment of it. She said she refused to regret her wish, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t change things if she had the chance.

Not to discount the sacrifice Chloé made, but Marinette had to be careful not give her more credit than she was due either.

Regardless of the deception however, the school bully still entered the Contract knowing full well she would be fighting Witches, where any battle could turn lethal. She may have had plans to retire after a year, but she still willingly took on the risk that she could be killed in action long before then.

Marinette was willing to fight for Adrian, but the more she thought about it, the less certain she was she’d be willing to sacrifice herself for him. Crushing on him made her want to get closer to him, want to get to know him better, and if that ever happened then maybe they could develop a relationship where Marinette could sacrifice herself for him without a second thought, but they just weren’t there yet.

So, if Adrian was that person to Chloé, then who was that person to Marinette? Who did she have in her life that she would make a Contract for, aside from her own parents?

Marinettes pen moved with absent doodling as she sunk deeper into self reflection, eyes unfocused as she rested her chin on her other hand.

If she were to make a Contract to help someone else, she’d want to use the wish for someone she deeply cared for and trusted. She didn’t want a one-way relationship, so it’d need to be someone who supported her, listened to her, and could be counted on to have her back when she needed him the most. Someone who she could trust to hold her heart in his hands and keep it safe. Someone she loved and who loved her back.

That’s the sort of person she would be willing to make a Contract for.

The was s soft click as the tip of her stylus slid off her tablet, breaking Marientte out of her rumination. A quick glance down revealed that, in her distracted state, she had doodled in the margins of her notes a simple black cat.

The silly little doodle hit Marientte like a truck, and for second time that day she was left breathless by an overwhelming yet profoundly simple sense of clarity.

_‘Oh,’_ she thought. _‘Oh.’_

~*~*~*~*~*~

Marinette had to stay after class briefly to to discuss a few Class Representative matters with Miss Bustier, so she wasn’t able to leave right away with everyone else. She ran nearly all the way to the park, but in spite of her best efforts she was far and away the last to arrive. Everyone else had already arrived and were casually chatting away as they waited for Vincent to finish setting up by the time Marinette ran up, bending over and resting her hands on her knees as she tried to catch her breath.

“I’m so sorry!” She wheezed out. “I didn’t…meant to…keep everyone waiting!”

“It’s alright, we weren’t waiting long,” Adrian assured her kindly, bending down slightly so Marinette could see him smiling gently.

Marinette returned his smile and straightened again.

She gave a quick look over at everyone to check over all who had made it, froze, whipped her head back around and pointed a finger at none other than Sabrina Raincomprix.

“Whaaa-aaa-a?!” she asked.

Sabrina took half a step back and looked down at her feet as she hunched into herself. Juleka stopped her retreat with an arm around her shoulders.

“I invited her here,” the goth answered firmly. “We had a talk, and I realized that Sabrina just needs better friends. Might as well start here.”

It was like a switch flipped in Sabrina, and she immediately straighten and gave Juleka a brilliant smile.

“Oh, yes! Yes! And because you’re my friend I promise to have your and Roses math homework done tonight and tomorrow I’ll work on geography and-”

Juleka cut off the redhead with a firm pat on the head.

“You can come over tonight and _help_ me and Rose with our math homework,” Juleka told her, still firm but softened with a smile. Sabrina nodded in agreement, albeit with a confused smile.

Alya reached over and closed Marinettes hanging jaw.

“I’ll explain later,” she promised quietly.

A sharp clap of hands cut off any further conversation in the group.

“Alright, everyone to the bench!” Vincent instructed. “There’s a storm coming in later and we need to get this done while we still have good weather. Juleka was it? Go sit in the middle, we’ll arrange everyone else around you.”

As Vincent directed everyone to their spots, Adrian quietly said to Marinette “This was a really good idea.”

Marinette smiled in gratitude, heart fluttering as it always did around him, but the image of another blond boy flashed in her minds eye and the smile faded slightly.

Brand new clarity regarding her feelings for Chat Noir didn’t erase months of affection she’d held for Adrian, so being with one while thinking of the other was…confusing, to say the least. But as they moved on to more pictures that got progressively sillier, Marinette silently promised herself she’d have a good long talk with Tikki about it tonight.

If anyone could help untangle the confusing mess of feelings in her heart, it’d be the millennia old kwami who’s surely seen many a love-struck Ladybug.

However, the happy and light hearted atmosphere would soon be cut by a sharp and grating screen that pierced through the air like a spear.

“ADRIKINS!!”

Everyone leaped as one, as if struck by the same lighting bolt.

From across the field Chloé came storming in, focused on Adrian as if no one else existed.

“Why didn’t you tell me there was going to be another class picture?!” She wailed as she approached. “We can’t be in the pictures together if you don’t tell me these things!”

“That was kind of the point,” Adrian muttered quietly.

So distracted was Marinette by Chloés explosive arrival she had missed the way several of their classmates stood and loosely surrounded Adrian like a human shield, staring Chloé down and forcing the bewildered girl to stop short. Even Sabrina joined in, though she hung towards the back and wouldn’t look at Chloé.

There was a tense moment of silence.

“Excuse me, are we taking more pictures or not?” Vincent asked with a touch of impatience. “We only have time for a few more shots if the blonde girl is joining.”

Chloé smiled haughtily and opened her mouth to respond, but was swiftly cut off.

“No, she’s not joining us,” Adrian said sharply, not taking his eyes off the girl standing opposite of him.

Marinettes jaw dropped, having never heard Adrian take such a harsh tone toward his childhood friend. Chloé herself could only blink in stupefied confusion.

Adrian gently pushed his way past his self-appointed body guards to approach Chloé, crossing his arms and glaring at her with an expression colder than any she had ever seen on a person. When he spoke, with was like each word was a razor sharp blade coming out his mouth.

“I don’t know how you found out about this, and frankly I don’t care. This isn’t the official class picture, you weren’t invited, and you have no right to be here. Now leave.”

Marinette felt an icy rock settle in her stomach and spread its chill through her body, freezing her in place.

Chloé stared up at Adrian, eyes wide in disbelief, lips slightly parted, head slowly shaking as if she could’t comprehend what she was hearing. In sharp contrast to Adrian, firm and cold as iron, Chloés words were soft, tremulous and weak.

“But, Adrikins, we belong together.”

In that moment, something behind Adrians eyes **snapped**.

“I DON’T BELONG TO YOU!”

The words seemed to echo across the park, freezing everyone into place - Marinette, Chloé, the other classmates, even Vincent was shocked into stillness.

Adrian arms had released from their crossed position, and instead he held them to his side, fists clenched as he loomed over the shorter girl in his fury.

“I’m NOT your property, and you’re NOT entitled to me! I’ve tried to be patient, I tried to be understanding because you were my friend, I thought maybe I was just overthinking things, but you really only see me as your property, don’t you?!”

Chloé was shaking her head, panicking, pleading, “No, that’s not, I wouldn’t-”

“Sabrina told me what you said!” Adrian cut in harshly. “You shoved Marientte into a wall and yelled about how I was yours and how you won’t share me!”

Marinette gasped in horrified realization.

Chloé looked past Adrian and at Sabrina. ““You told him that?” She asked, voice thick with the hurt of betrayal.

The redhead flinched back, but with Juleka and Rose at her side she kept her head up and met Chloés eyes defiantly.

“Don’t you dare look at her, Sabrina did the right thing telling me,” Adrian said. “And you actually have the gall to say you did more for me than anyone else ever did? Are _for real_?? You think forging my dads signature to get me enrolled somehow BUYS me for life? I’m not THAT grateful, Chloé!”

There was a roaring, thundering noise in Marinettes ears and a clenching in her chest and she couldn’t let this happen, she couldn’t let Chloé loose her reason for living, but how could she make him understand _when she couldn’t tell him the truth?_

“Adrian, that’s not-” Marientte tried, but was pulled back by an arm around her chest and a hand over her mouth.

“Girl, for once, stay out of it,” Alya whispered harshly.

“Adrikins, that’s not true, I really did - I mean, I didn’t mean it like that!” Chloé begged. “I do care about you, I promise I do!”

She reached out to him entreatingly with one hand, only for Adrian to sharply step back out of her reach.

“Save it Chloé,” he said coldly. “You’re cruel, you’re petty, you’re possessive and you don’t care about anyone but yourself. I thought school-you was just a mask you put on, and I couldn’t figure out why. But that’s the real you, isn’t it? I’m done waiting and hoping the girl I grew up with was going to come back, because it’s become clear to me that she never existed at all!

“I’m done with you, Chloé. I don’t want you to come near me, I don’t want you to talk to me, I don’t want to have anything to do with you anymore! I. Am. DONE!”

Chloé was silent, hands curled at her chest, breath turning ragged and still frozen in shock and despair even as tears started to flow down her cheeks.

Adrians fury finally flickered out and something like pained remorse took his place as he saw the tears. He started to raise a hand, only to pull it back and look away from her.

Everyone else completely silent. It was as if the whole world had ceased to breath as a lifelong friendship came to an end.

Chloé took a step back, then another, the tears coming faster. On the third step she spun around and ran away with all her might.

Marinette watched her flee for a moment, and the spell keeping her frozen finally broke.

She pulled away from Alya and started to run after her, only to be stopped by hands gripping her shoulder.

“Let it go Marinette, this has been a long time coming,” Nino told her with infuriating calm. “Whatever you feel like you owe her because of what she did for you last month, you don’t own her anything.”

“Yeah, like, I don’t know what you were trying to do by hanging out with her so much before, but it obviously didn’t work,” Alya said, crossing her arms. “You’re one of the nicest people I know Mari, but Chloé’s an absolute witch and she doesn’t deserve it.”

White hot fury flashed through her, and she smacked Ninos well-meaning hand away as she spun around to face him, to face them all.

“You don’t understand!” She yelled. Nino rocked back in shock, as did everyone else. Adrian had been staring after Chloés disappearing form, but Marinette arrested his attention.

“None of you understand!” Marientte yelled at them all. “You don’t know what Chloés been dealing with, you have no right to judge her when you don’t _understand_!”

With that Marientte turned on them to run toward the park entrance when Chloé had disappeared, the rolling thunder of the oncoming storm following her.

She was just in time to catch Chloés yellow sweater growing smaller in the distance down the street. Choe ignored all of Marinettes calls as she chased after her, and it took several blocks before Marinette was able to catch up with her. It wasn’t until she made a clumsy grab at the taller girls arm that she got her to stop.

“Let go of me!” Chloé yelled, voice breaking and refusing to turn around. Marinette held on tight and dug her heels instead.

“I know this looks bad, but we can still fix this!” Marinette said. “You, you just have to start being nicer, and when Adrian sees you’re doing better I’m sure he’ll forgive you!”

Chloé whirled around to face her. Random drops of rain were beginning to fall as the sky began to darken, but it wasn’t nearly enough to disguise the tear tracks that marred her make up.

“You hear what he said!” She cried out. “He doesn’t want anything to do with me anymore!”

She let out a bitter laugh and covered her eyes with her free hand as more tears came.

“I should have known this was going to happen, this is what I get for playing the villain in everyone else’s stories, he was bound to see me the same way once he started coming to school, and now I can’t fix it, I’m in too deep and I can’t take any of it back!”

“That’s not true!” Marientte insisted. “There’s always a chance to do better! You’ve made mistakes, but you can be _better_! I can help you!”

Chloés hand drops from her eyes, and pain was replaced with fury.

“Help me? HELP me?! You don’t understand anything about me, how could you possibly _help_ me? All you have to do is _exist_ and everyone automatically loves you, you can’t understand anything about me!”

Marinette released her grip and stumbled back at the sheer vitriol of Chloés voice, but the angry blonde wasn’t done erupting.

“You, you’re just the daughter of a couple of common bakers, yet you can get anyone you meet twisted around your little finger with nothing but a smile and a ‘please’ because EVERYONE just LOVES you! I have to fight so hard for anyone to pay attention to me, but all YOU have to do is waltz in and everyone adores you!”

“That’s not true, I don’t-” Marinette tried to protest, only for Chloé to yell over her.

“YES IT IS! Adrian liked you from the first day of school and still thinks of you as one of his first friends, when I’ve been there all along! I spent two months fighting with Felicity and she never wanted to spend time with me, but she bent over backwards for _you_! Kyubey can’t stop talking about how _exceptional_ you are, and even Evangeline respects you, which more than what I ever got! But me, I have to fight and claw and constantly prove that I’m as exceptional as everyone expects me to be, and I can’t even get my own mother to talk to me!”

Marinettes hand came up to slap over her mouth in shock at the raw pain and emotion coming off Chloé, and she was already shaking her head in denial.

“No, no, you’re wrong, there’s lots of people who care about you, and lots of people who’ll happily be your friend if you, if you just, if started being nicer.”

Chloé turned her head away, refusing to accept Marinettes stuttered comfort.

“Just stop, okay? Just stop it and go back to your friends. You’ve taken everything else from me, why are you even still here?”

The words burst out from Marinettes lips before the conscious thought even finished forming in her mind -

“Because you’re my-!”

\- and she stopped when she realized what she was about to say, a simple yet profound truth that had formed a long time ago but never given life until that very moment, a truth that snuck up on her and shocked her.

She wasn't standing here because of her Ladybug duty to help the people in front of her, or out of guilt for failing to save Felicity, or because it was the ‘right’ thing to do, or because Paris needed Chloé as a functional Magical Girl.

She was here because she cared about Chloé herself, pure and simple

_Because you’re my friend._

But the shock caused Marientte to hesitate for too long, and Chloé drew her own conclusions as to why Marientte couldn’t finish what she was saying.

“Can’t even bring yourself to say it, huh?” Chloé said bitterly. “Figures. You always did hate lying and liars. Just leave me alone, Dupain-Cheng.”

She started to turn to leave again, and Marinette was struck by a sharp sense of terror that if she let Chloé go now she’ll loose her forever.

“Chloé no! It’s not-” Marientte tried to say, as she made a grab for Chloé again.

“I said leave me ALONE!”

As she shouted the last word she turned and shoved Marinette away with all the might of a Magical Girl.

Marinette cried out as she was sent flying backwards several meters through the air, landing hard and rolling several times across the pavement before she came to a stop, white hot and wet pain on her face and exposed forearms.

She came to a stop on her stomach, and she laid still for a moment before gingerly pushing herself up, the rain starting to come down harder around her. There were burning scrapes along her arms, and when she lightly touched her face she found more on her chin and cheek.

She looked up at Chloé, frozen in place and looking back at the scrapped and bloodied Marinette in horror. The sound of thunder filled the air, and the rain changed from a sprinkle to a growing downpour.

Chloé raised a hand and took a step forward. But she spotted something behind Marinette that caused her to stop, retreat her hand, turn and run away again.

Marinette reached out a hand fruitlessly after her,watching the white and yellow finger grow smaller in the distance between her fingers.

“Marinette! Are you alright?”

As if by magic Adrian was there, kneeling besides her and shielding her from the rain with his umbrella. Marientte blinked up at him, but found her face being gently turned by Nino on her other side.

“Oof, that doesn’t look good,” he said as he appraised Marinette’s injuries. Alya was standing behind him, covering them both with her own umbrella but looking very much like she wanted to run Chloé down.

“Just what the hell is her problem?!” Alya spat. “You were just trying to help, she didn’t have to shove you like that! Ungrateful brat, I told you we should have followed them right away!”

“I didn’t think Chloé would get violent.” Adrian defended.

“Yeah, that was pretty out of character, even for her,” Nino agreed as he released Marinette’s face. “Then again, she’s pretty upset so maybe it’s not that surprising.”

Marientte looked around at her friends, all at various levels of concern for her and anger towards Chloé.

“How much did you hear?” She asked.

“Honestly all we saw was Chloé shoving you,” Adrian admitted. “I had no idea she was that strong, that was completely uncalled for. Do you think you can stand?”

Marinette nodded, but accepted his helping hand on her elbow as she climbed to her feet.

“We have to…we can’t leave her alone, she’s really hurting right now,” Marinette protested. A pained expression crossed Adrians face.

“I’m sorry, I should have talked to Chloé in private, I shouldn’t have let you chase after her alone that like that, it’s my fault you got hurt.”

“Dude, no, just no.” Nino said. “Yeah, maybe you should’ve talked to Chloé sooner, but she’s the once who tried to force herself where she wasn’t wanted, you had every right to tell her off. The only one responsible for Chloés actions is Chloé.”

Hot tears course down Marinette’s cheeks, irritating the scrape on her cheek, and she gingerly wiped them away. Alya anger finally softened, and she passed the umbrella to Nino so she could hug her friend.

“Sorry girl,” she said softly into Marinette’s ear. “Look, I get that you might feel like you owe Chloé something because she helped you with something major last month, but you don’t owe her anything, not if she’s going to treat you like this.”

Alya stepped back and gently tugged at Marinette’s hand.

“C’mon, let’s get you home. Your parents have gotta have a first aid kit somewhere.”

This time Marientte allowed Alya to lead her away, Adrian and Nino keeping the heavy downpour off the best they could with their umbrellas as they followed.

~*~*~*~*~*~

The following day, Chloés seat was unsurprisingly empty again.

It was unsurprising, until Office Raincomprix and a couple other officers showed up later that morning to speak to various students in private, including Sabrina, Adrian, and Marinette.

It was only then that Marinette learned that Chloé never returned home that night.


	11. Curse

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was the kind of chapter where the middle and end came easily, because I’ve had strong images in my head for months for most of it, but the beginning was an unexpected challenge. I went through like four or five different versions where I started with Marinettes POV, but I wasn’t satisfied with anything I came up with. 
> 
> Then I tried with Adrian, and he pretty much took over almost the entire chapter. 
> 
> “Oh,” I thought. “That’s right. Adrian is going to have ISSUES about significant female figures disappearing in his life.”  
> The rest flowed much better after that. Sorry Adrian, apparently my muse enjoys your suffering.
> 
> *Sips a mug of Adrian-tears*

The day Émilie Agreste disappeared had been deceptively normal. Get up, have breakfast, start his morning home school routine with only a passing wonder of why his mother hadn’t appeared yet. When she hadn’t shown up by evening, he had asked his father where she was but was curtly rebuffed. Adrian had been confused, but trusting that his mother was just out late and he’d see her in the morning.

It wasn’t until the police came that Adrian finally understood something was terribly wrong.

Days turned to weeks, weeks turned to months, and desperate hope eventually curdled into cold dread that his kind, warm, loving mother was never coming back. Dread rotted into fear that she left because there was something wrong with _him,_ that he hadn’t been a good enough son for her to stay.

Even now the lingering fear remained that if he wasn’t dutiful enough, wasn’t perfect enough, if he pushed too hard and asked for too much, his father…

Now Adrian was once again watching his entire world flip upside down as a police officer told him that someone else he loved was simply _gone_.

“I don’t understand,” Adrian croaked out. “Chloés not…she’s not the type to run away, she wouldn’t do that.”

With practiced gentleness the police officer said “We’re going to do everything we can to find her, but we wanted to ask you a few questions. We can call your father if you’d rather he be with you, if you'd like.”

Adrian shook his head. “No, I…what do you need know?”

The rest of the interview passed in a blur for him, his mouth mechanically answering the officers questions while his ears continued to buzz. After an eternity he was allowed to leave, but rather than return to the classroom his feet guided him to the nearest boys restroom, his hand already pulling his cell phone out of his pocket.

_“This is the one and only Chloé Bourgeois! Leave a message, and I’ll get back to you when I have time.”_

“Chloé I…Please, wherever you are, please come back, we’re all really worried about you.”

_“This is the one and only Chloé Bourgeois! Leave a message, and I’ll get back to you when I have time.”_

“Chloé, I’m sorry, okay? I should’ve just talked to you a long time ago, I shouldn’t have yelled like that in front of everyone, don’t…don’t this, please. Please just, just call me back and tell me you’re okay.”

_“This is the one and only Chloé Bourgeois! Leave a message, and I’ll get back to you when I have time.”_

“Chlo, I’m sorry, I’m so, SO sorry, I didn’t mean to…I mean, I didn’t…I’m just so sorry, we’ll hang out and do anything you want, just please call me back or come home.”

_“The mailbox is full and cannot accept new messages. Goodbye.”_

_“The mailbox is full and cannot accept new messages. Goodbye.”_

_“The mailbox is full and cannot accept new messages. Goodbye.”_

“Adrian.”

The boy flinched looked up to find a somber faced Nino watching him.

His friend came in, letting the door swing shut behind him, and grabbed a paper towel from the dispenser as he passed. Nino held it up in silent offering, and after a moment Adrian took it with a trembling hand to wipe his tear-stained cheeks.

Nino opened his mouth, closed it, looked down, kicked a foot against the floor, and looked up again.

“I really don’t know what to say, except I’m sorry and I hope Chloé’s okay,” he admitted.

“You didn’t even like her,” Adrian muttered darkly. “Everyone hated her.”

Nino briefly looked offended.

“That doesn’t mean any of us wanted this to happen, we just wanted her to calm down and back off a little. And you care about her, so that’s good enough for me.”

Adrian ducked his head and muttered a quietly shamed ‘sorry.’ Nino simply shrugged, offense gone.

“C’mon bro. Miss Bustier sent me to find you when you didn’t come back to class. Unless you’d rather call your dad? No one would blame you if you wanted to go home.”

Adrian felt his throat close up, and shook his head.

He followed Nino out the bathroom with every intention of returning to class. However his feet abruptly changed direction and took him down the stairs instead. By the time Nino noticed, Adrians legs had switched to running and had already carried him across the courtyard.

“ADRIAN!” Nino called, but the blonde boy ignored him as he ran out the entrance, leapt down the stairs two at a time and took off down the street. He only had the vaguest idea of where he was going, more concerned that he had to _go_.

When he finally stopped to check his phone for his location, he found nearly half a dozen text messages and missed calls from Nino. Not bothering to check them, Adrian sent a single reply:

_“I have to find Chloé.”_

He turned off his notifications after that. He couldn’t afford to be distracted.

When they were little, he and Chloé used to plan grand “adventures” they would do when they were older, places they wanted to see and things they wanted to do together once Adrian was allowed to leave, or perhaps old enough to escape.

Chloé had grandiose plans of taking him to the top of the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe, having an all day shopping trip along Champs-Elysees, watching the sunset from the Pont Alexandre III bridge together, and so much more. Sheltered, isolated Adrian had far simpler ambitions - visit a grocery store, go to a movie theatre, see an arcade, experience the ordinary day of an ordinary teenager.

At the time such “adventures” had seemed as fantastically impossible as visiting Narnia. Adventures they, ironically, never got around to fulfilling once his oft-dreamed for freedom was finally granted.

_(Stupid, selfish boy, as soon as he got what he wanted he abandoned his oldest friend like he didn’t need her anymore, how could he be so cruel?)_

But those childish dreams were the only hunch he had of where she’d gone.

He spent hours traveling on foot and by subway to as many of those mapped-out stops he could recall, showing Chloés picture from his phone to shop owners and patrons and begging them to remember if she was there, and getting nothing but sympathetic denials that anyone had seen her.

Of course it crossed Adrians mind that perhaps Chat Noir could search for Chloé more efficiently, but he brushed it away almost immediately. She needed to know he was looking for her.

She needed to know that _Adrian_ was looking for her.

He would have kept searching the whole day and night had a red and black spotted figure not dropped down from above in front of him. He skidded to a stop to avoid crashing into her.

“Ladybug??” He yelped as she retracted her yo-yo. “Wh-what are you doing here?”

“Same thing as you, I’m guessing,” she replied simply. “Trying to look for Chloé. Trying to find aplace to even start, actually.”

At Chloés name, Adrian felt a sudden surge of intense, hot anger towards the heroine. _She_ was one who told him to break off his friendship, it was _her_ fault Chloé was missing now!

But the anger burned out as quickly as it came, drowned by self-hatred.

He was the one who painted the picture, he was the one who asked for help. Ladybug gave him the best advice she could based on what she knew, and all she knew was his perspective. She had no idea how Chloé felt, because he himself never tried hard enough to find out first.

“I didn’t realize you regularly searched for missing people, but I’m glad you’re helping,” Adrian said.

“Normally I’d leave this to the police, but I can’t help but feel personally responsible for Chloé,” Ladybug admitted.

And Adrian could understand that. Ladybug had done nothing to hide her displeasure at the attention the heiress tried to heap on her in their early meetings, but after continued association with repeated rescues, it wasn’t surprising that Ladybug would start to feel a bit more responsible for her well being. On the other hand…

“It’s not like you’re responsible for her running way,” Adrian told her.

For some reason Ladybug seemed to almost flinch at that.

“In any case, you need to go home now,” Ladybug told him. He started to protest, but stopped when she raised her hand. “I know you want to help, but right now you’re forcing everyone to divide their attention between looking for Chloé and looking for you.”

Sick shame rolled through him.

_(Stupid, selfish boy, all you ever do is make things harder for everyone else, why can’t you stop being so worthless!)_

Ladybug made a beckoning motion towards him. “C’mon, let me take you home.”

Adrian shook his head and scuttled a step back.

“No, I can just call for a ride, you shouldn’t be wasting time on me.”

“It’d take anyone driving twice as long to get here as it would take for me to bring you home right now,” Ladybug pointed out. “And I think your father would appreciate you being home as soon as possible.”

Adrian had no argument against that.

True to her word, Ladybug crossed the Parisian rooftops in leaps and bounds with Adrian in herarms. In less than ten minutes she was setting him down at his own front door.

“Thanks for the lift,” Adrian said quietly, giving her a weak smile.

Ladybug hesitated a moment, then reached over gently squeezed his shoulder. She seemed about ready to say something, but was cut off by the door swinging open to reveal Nathalie.

“Adrian!” She explained, starting to reach a hand out before catching herself and pulling her hand back to her chest. She turned to the spotted heroine instead. “Thank you so much for bringing him home.”

“It’s no problem,” Ladybug responded. She turned to Adrian again.

“Please be sure to keep your phone ready, just in case Chloé tries to call you. The Mayor has already gone on TV asking for help, so hopefully we’ll start getting more reports.”

Adrian nodded in understanding, and Ladybug swung away.

As Nathalie ushered him inside, Adrian spotted his father standing at the top of the stairs, hands clasped behind him, looking as if he’d be carved from a block of ice even as he radiated fury. He didn’t yell, but he projected across the foyer anyway.

“What were you thinking?”

Nathalie immediately backed away from Adrian, fading into the background with the practiced ease of an assistant.

Adrian lowered his head, slowly trudging across the foyer and up the stairs under his father watchful gaze.

“Skipping half a day of school. Leaving without a word to anyone. Ignoring our calls and texts. Wandering the city without your bodyguard. Do you have any idea how irresponsible that was? What you put us through? We had to hear from your classmate that you had run off!”

Adrian stopped at the landing, standing before his father with his head still down and stomach rolling with sick guilt.

Gabriel observed him for a moment, then sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose under his thick glasses.

“Do you think you accomplished anything with your stunt?” He asked rhetorically. “Leave this matter to the police, this isn’t your responsibility.”

Adrians hands clenched into fists.

“Yes it is,” he whispered.

Gabriel looked sharply down at his son. “You are a child. No, it is not.”

“IT’S MY FAULT SHE GONE!”

The words seemed to echo in the cavernous foyer. The normally implacable Gabriel was left rocking back on his heels in shock.

Adrian didn’t even notice, head still down, shoulders shaking, fists tightening, eyes squeezed shut that did nothing to stem the tears. The dam had burst and he couldn’t hold back the flood any longer.

“S-she’s been there for me all my life, but as soon as I started making new friends I practically forgot about her. _I_ was the one leaving her behind, and I got mad at _her_ for trying to follow me! I should’ve just, just talked to her, not yelled at her in front of everyone! I got mad and I hurt her so much that she ran away and-”

Warm arms wrapped around him and pulled him close.

The sheer shock of the rare and unexpected display of affection rendered Adrian speechless.

“You are a child,” Gabriel said again, softer and gentler than before. “You are not a therapist, or a teacher, or a parent. It was the responsibility of the adults around her to see that she needed help and to provide it. Chloé was clearly hurting far more than she was letting on, but I strongly believe that hurt was building for a long time. And I know that whatever the seed of that pain was, _you did not put it there.”_

Gabriel pulled back to look Adrian in the eye again, keeping his hands on the boys shoulders.

“You did the right thing sharing your concerns the way you did. I should have brought it up with her father, perhaps her teachers. I should have responded better, handled it better. The failure was _mine_ , not yours.”

Adrian sniffed and blinked as fresh tears came. Gabriel straightened up again.

“I should have been more understanding of how upsetting this situation would be for you, but you still should not have run off the way you did. Promise me that you won’t do that again. You will not help Chloé by going missing as well.”

Adrian nodded.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered.

Gabriel stroked a hand through Adrians hair once before stepping back, evidently having reached his tolerance for physical affection.

“You may have the rest of today to yourself, but tomorrow you will go to school and resume your extra-curricular activities. Understood?”

Adrian nodded again and retreated to his room. In the privacy of his bedroom, Plagg popped out of his hiding spot in Adrians shirt pocket.

“For once, your pop has a point,” the kwami said. “You sit around waiting for news or run around Paris by yourself to find her, all you’ll do is drive yourself crazy. Keeping busy will help you stay sane.”

“Right,” Adrian said dully, kicking off his shoes and dropping onto his bed.

It was only mid afternoon, but he was exhausted in every sense of the word - physical, mental, emotional. He felt drained and wrought out, like an old rag that had been twisted and squeezed of every last drop of water.

He dug his phone out of his pocket and pulled Chloés contact information up. He stared at the familiar image of her profile pic for a long minute before hitting ‘call’.

_“The mailbox is full and cannot accept new messages. Goodbye.”_

_“The mailbox is full and cannot accept new messages. Goodbye.”_

_“The mailbox is full and cannot accept new messages. Goodbye.”_

Adrian dropped his arm across his eyes as the tears came again. He felt Plaggs tiny, warm body snuggle up against his neck, comforting and familiar as Adrian broke down again.

Unbeknownst to him, his father would spend the rest of the day and half the night using the butterfly Miraculous to comb through the hearts and minds of Paris for his sons missing friend, knowing all the while it was as futile as searching for a single shard of glass on a beach of black volcanic sand, but searching anyway.

~*~*~*~*~

The first thing Adrian did the next morning was check his phone for any messages since last night.Logically he knew that with the sound turned to max volume, any text alerts or phone calls would have woken him up, and even if they didn’t Plagg would have done so.

It didn’t stop the crushing disappointment when he saw that Chloé didn’t make any attempts to contact him during the night.

The second thing he did was check news reports for any updates. Naturally the mayors daughter going missing would make headlines, but unfortunately they only served to confirm that after almost 36 hours the police remained no closer to finding Chloé.

His mother had been a famous and high-profile woman in her own right, yet she disappeared off the face of the earth without a trace. And now Chloé was…

Plagg had to yank the phone out of Adrians hand and hold it out of reach to force the boy to finish getting ready for school rather than spiraling deeper into news reports and online discussions on what befell the unofficial Parisian Princess.

He also had to repeatedly pull Adrian out of the beginnings of a mental spiral into the pit of what if’s:

What if she had been kidnapped while she was alone and vulnerable, and that’s why she had gone silent? What if she really had run away from home because of what he said? What if he had spoken to her sooner, like an actual friend, would it have been enough to prevent her disappearing?

_What if she never came home again either?_

The ‘what if’s’ continued to chase him all the way to school, until he entered the classroom to find everyone huddled around Sabrina and Max in animated discussion.

“What’s going on?” He asked, mostly to himself.

Somehow it was still enough to catch Marinettes attention. She turned around to face him with an expression of surprise and relief.

“Adrian!”

All chatter instantly ceased as everyone stopped to look up at him. Adrian could only freeze under their combined attention.

It lasted only about a second before Marinette was breaking away from the group to approach him. She was quick to take him by the arm and pull him closer with a gentle tug.

“Sabrina brought a stack of posters this morning, we were just dividing them up and figuring where to go,” Marinette explained.

Adrian looked down, and this time processed the stack of papers in front of Sabrina and a large paper map of Paris spread out in front of Max.

The stop of the stack was a Missing Persons poster with a picture of Chloé, clearly cropped from the class photo taken mere hours before she disappeared. The map had different sections outlined in markers in different colors and further marked by carefully positioned arrows.

“I ran some numbers last night for where the highest foot traffic is and the most efficient placement for posters,” Max explained quietly. “We were just discussing if we should try to canvass the closest spots during lunch, or wait until after school when we can stay out longer.”

Adrian looked up at Max, then Sabrina, then cast his gaze around the rest of his huddled classmates. Most of them were holding small stacks under their arms or against their chests, and Juleka had a phone up to her ear even as she carefully watched him.

Something tightened in his chest that sent a prickling throughout his body. “You’re all…?”

“A lot of us have known Chloé for years, and even if we didn’t get along she’s still one of us,” Nathaniel said quietly.

“I once wished that Chloé would stop coming to school, and Marinette yelled at me for it,” Alya admitted shamefully, tightening her posters against her chest. “I didn’t really get why, but I do now. As much as Chloé drove me crazy, I never wanted anything bad to happen to her. So if there’s anything I can do to help her, I’m doing it.”

“You’re not the only one who wants her back,” Sabrina finished softly.

That crawling, prickling feeling crawled up his throat and a sob forced it’s way out. Adrian covered mouth, embarrassed by the display but still so _relieved_.

“I’m sorry,” he choked out. “I’m just…I know how hard Chloé made things for all of you, but I’m grateful for this, I really am.”

Marinette wrapped her arms around him and he immediately he hugged her back, grateful for the comfort she offered.

They broke apart after about a minute. Rose already had a tissue ready, which Adrian was happy to take.

“So, got anything left for me?” He asked with only a slight wobble left to his voice. Juleka was quick to recognize the silent request to move on.

“And can you squeeze in one more person?” She asked Max. She gently shook her phone in the air. “My brother just got a delivery job and he’s offering to put up posters while he’s en route.”

The conversation shifted back to plans, routes, and partners, fine details being hashed out and the remaining posters being divided up, Juleka getting a double portion to share with her brother. The bell eventually rang, but when they started to disperse Miss Bustier calmly asked ifthey were completely finished. Sabrina admitted not quite yet, and Miss Bustier simply smiled and suggested they take another fifteen minutes to wrap it up.

Adrian silently promised to give his teacher the biggest Christmas and birthday gifts of her entire life that year.

“I think that’s everything,” Sabrina concluded. “Everyone has a route and schedule? Everyone has a partner? Perfect. There should be plenty of posters, but let me know if you need more as soon as possible. If we can stay on schedule, we should have most of the city covered by Saturday.”

“And there’s no better way to guarantee an Akuma attack than by makings plans,” Kim muttered as counted his stack again.

“Don’t say that! We need to be positive!” Rose admonished. Max however looked thoughtful.

“That might actually be the best case scenario,” he said. Alya gave him a deadpan look.

“Right, because clearly someone getting Akumitized because they lost a game of Monopoly is exactly what we need right now,” she responded sarcastically. Max shook his head.

“I don’t just mean any Akuma. If Hawkmoth targets people who are emotionally vulnerable, then the best case scenario is that he Akumitizes Chloé. At least then she’d show herself and we’d know where she is. Granted, Ladybug and Chat Noir would have to defeat her Akumitized self, but after they purify her she’ll be rescued.”

“That’s…a really good point,” Alya admitted. “Now I’m just wondering why he’s taking so long. How is she not prime Akuma bait? He’s Akumitized people for a lot less!”

Someone else replied, but Adrian wasn’t paying attention anymore. He felt like ice water had just flooded his veins and he couldn’t move, could barely breathe.

Alya was right, Chloé should have been a prime Akuma target. But what Alya didn’t know was that there were far worse monsters that Hawkmoth preying on the emotionally vulnerable in Paris.

~*~*~*~*~

If yesterday had been like living in a timeless fog, today was like being awake while attached to a live wire.

Adrian was acutely aware of ever passing minute, counting every wasted second as he practically vibrated with need to contact Ladybug RIGHT NOW.

Between school, putting up posters with Nino during lunch, and Chinese lessons in the afternoon, Adrian didn’t get time alone until until he got home early evening and was granted peace for his “piano practice.”

One iPod playing classical piano and a quick transformation later Chat Noir was practically flying out the window.

He called Ladybug as soon as he was a decent distance way from his house, and to his relief she picked up on the first ring.

“I need to talk to you. Can you meet up at my location?” He asked.

Ladybug nodded, her eyes steadfast and serious. “I can be there in five minutes.”

Something sharp and tight inside him finally started to loosen.

True to her word Ladybug was swinging in and landing on the rooftop where he waited. Now that she had arrived, Chat Noir didn’t didn’t waste any time with preamble.

“We need the Magical Girls help to find Chloé.”

Ladybugs head reeled back as her eyes popped out in shock.

“It’s the only thing that makes sense,” he explained while gesturing with his hands. “No one’s found her yet and she hasn’t been Akumitized, so she must have been pulled into a Labyrinth, and the Magical Girl is the only one who can find the Witch and free her.”

Ladybug was staring sadly at him. “Chat…”

But Chat Noir had started pacing back and forth and was too caught up in what he was saying to notice.

“I get it’s been two days already and if Chloé’s been in a Labyrinth this whole time then it’s…that’s really bad,” he said in a rush. “But you got your senses back right after YOU got trapped in one, and if Chloé could do the same then maybe she’d be able to hide long enough to wait for rescue and-”

Ladybug grabbed him by the shoulder and turned him around to face her.

Held in place by her hands on both shoulders, Chat Noir found himself frozen by the pure sadness and grief of Ladybugs expression, something he hadn’t seen from her since Felicity died, and the familiarity terrified him.

It still wasn’t enough to brace him for what she said next.

“Chloé _is_ the Magical Girl.”

In that moment the entire universe _stopped._

“…What?”

Ladybug released his shoulders and took a step back, but time was still frozen and Chat couldn’t move.

“Chloé is the Magical Girl,” Ladybug repeated. “The one who made a Contract with Kyubey three months ago, the one who saved me from the Hydra Witch, and the one who protected me against Evangeline. It was her the entire time.”

Chat Noir heard his mouth speak, but it felt separate from him, like his body was moving on its own without any input from him.

“That doesn’t make any sense,” his mouth said. “Magical Girl is a hero, and Chloé is mean.”

Ladybug nodded. “It’s partly on purpose. Remember what you said about how it can’t be a coincidence that Witches became rarer when Hawkmoth showed up? Chloé noticed it too, she figured Hawkmoth has been starving them out because he’s been acting as a release valve for negative emotions. She’s been deliberately provoking people so they’ll be akumitized because she figured it’d help protect them against Witches in the long run.”

His legs failed him and he dropped to his knees, staring ahead in a daze because this _could not be real._

“Chat!” Ladybug exclaimed. She kneeled in front of him and hovered her hands over him, ready to grab him if he collapsed completely.

I felt like his heart was pounding against his skull while the edges of his vision faded in and out, he could barely hear what Ladybug was saying through the cotton that was filling his ears and the vice around his ribcage was squeezing so tight he couldn’t _breathe_ , this _couldn’t be real._

His words echoed back to him.

 _“I thought school-you was just a mask you put on, and I couldn’t figure out why._ _But that’s the real you, isn’t it? I’m done waiting and hoping the girl I grew up with was going to come back, because it’s become clear to me that she never existed at all!”_

_(Stupid, selfish boy, you knew her well enough to see she was putting on a mask but you were too stupid to realize which face was fake and now it’s YOUR FAULT SHE’S GONE TOO!)_

“Chat? Chaton, are you alright?” Ladybug asked in alarm when he stopped responding.

In an instant the fog was burned away by white hot rage.

He leapt back to his feet and towered over the still kneeling Ladybug.

“WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME?!”

Ladybug fell backwards and barely caught herself, as if physically pushed back by the force of Chat Noirs fury. Her eyes were blown wide open, lips parted in shock, but she was given no chance to recover.

“How could not tell me?!” He yelled as he loomed over her. “I needed to know! I deserved to know, how could you keep this from me?!”

Shock gave way to anger as Ladybug scrambled back to her feet.

“Her father didn’t know! Her best friend didn’t know!” Ladybug argued back. “Why do you deserve more to know than anyone else?! Because you’re my partner? She never wanted ME to know, I had no right to share it with you!”

“You should have told me anyway!” Chat yelled back as he threw his hands out. “If I knew I could’ve done more to help, I could’ve done something different, I wouldn’t have-!”

He snapped his jaw shut.

The silence echoed between then.

Chat Noir watched as Ladybugs fiery anger cooled away and was replaced by confusion and worry.

“Wouldn’t have, what?” She prodded quietly.

Chat Noir looked away. “Nothing.”

The tension hung thick between them, neither certain how to proceed.

He forced out a huff and ran a hand through his tousled hair. “Well, on the plus side at least this means she’s probably pretty safe on her own. No ones going to be able to mess with a Magical Girl, she might actually be okay until we find her.”

Ladybug cringed.

Chat Noir stared at her. “….What don’t I know?”

Ladybug lowered her head and absently started wringing her hands. “I should have told you about this before, I don’t know why I didn’t, except that Chloé was starting to push me away and…it doesn’t matter anymore, you need to know now.”

“Know what now?” Chat asked, the prickling, sickening fear crawling up his throat again.

Ladybug took a steadying breath and met his eyes.

“When a girl makes a Contract with Kyubey, he removes their souls from their bodies and puts it in a Soul Gem. That’s how Kyubey grants them their powers, and their lives become dependent on keeping their gems charged with Grief Seeds.”

Chat Noir had thought finding out Chloé was the Magical Girl was bad.

This was so much worse.

“Her soul?” He repeated hoarsely.

Ladybug nodded.

“The last time I saw her gem, it was pretty dim,” she admitted. “I don’t know how much time she has left, but if she doesn’t charge it soon…”

She trailed off. Not that it mattered, Chat Noir could fill in the blank just fine.

He fisted his hands into his hair and paced back and forth in short agitated bursts before he abruptly spun around and punched the nearby chimney block hard enough to crack it.

**“FUCK!”**

Ladybug cried out behind him but it barely registered. He stood there, breathing heavily, fist cratered into the concrete.

Red gloved hands reached over and tugged his fist free. Gentle fingers tenderly ran over his knuckles, checking for injuries. Blue eyes filled with concern, confusion and fear looked entreatingly up at him.

“Chat…”

The gentleness was more than he could handle.

He pulled his hand away from her.

“Do you know how to find Evangeline?”

Ladybug looked briefly thrown off, though whether by the abrupt subject change or the flat, almost robotic way he spoke, he couldn’t tell.

“Finding Chloé won’t be enough if her gem is running on fumes,” he explained. “We should start carrying a Grief Seed each if we can, so we can purify her gem as soon as we find her.”

Ladybug stared up at him, and he could practically see the war behind her eyes as she battled between her concern for him and his unspoken, implicit plea to let him be for now.

Firm determination settled over her like a cloak as she reached a decision.

“I don’t know where she is right now, but I know where she’ll be tomorrow morning.”

~*~*~*~*~

Kyubey listened intently from his position on the other side of the chimney block, where he had remained out of sight ever since Chat called Ladybug to meet him.

He did not experience happiness or excitement the way humans understood it, but Chat Noirs explosive reaction to finding out Chloés secret was an encouraging sign.

Satisfied, he stood and trotted away as Ladybug and Chat Noir began discussing how to find Evangeline and about speaking to the police for updates in the meantime.

Nothing was certain, there were still many variables in play that could drastically change how everything played out, but for now things were progressing quite nicely.

~*~*~*~*~

Ladybug hadn’t expected she’d have to reveal Chloés identity to Chat Noir, but her disappearance left her without a choice.

She had expected shock and disbelief, but she was completely unprepared for how _raw_ his reaction turned out to be.

Ever since she told him about Chloé, something inside him seemed to have shut down. Any questions she asked were answered with minimal responses, his playful flirtations replaced with stoney silence.

And while she was understandably confused and worried about him, she couldn’t help but also feel a bit angry.

 _She_ was the one who had to deal with the dangers of Witches and Magical Girls all this time. _She_ was the one who had to weather Chloés emotional outbursts. _She_ was the one who had tried to be Chloes friend!

Now when she needed his support the most, suddenly he’s acting like THIS and forcing her to treat him with kid gloves??

She didn’t want to be bitter, but it was hard not to be a little resentful.

But they didn’t have time for that. Right now she had to focus on finding Chloé.

And while they didn’t have any leads as to where she had gone as of yet, a potentially vital component in ensuring they brought her back safe and alive was walking out of the Dupain-Cheng bakery right now.

Evangeline had just crossed the street, pink cardboard box in her arms, when Ladybug dropped down directly in front of her.

The Magical Girl froze mid-step. “Wha-?!”

Ladybug grabbed her around the waist and leapt back up to the rooftops before Evangeline even had a chance to process what had happened.

And of course Evangeline kept a grip on her goodie box even during her sudden abduction.

Chat Noir stood with arms crossed as he waited for them, coolly watching Ladybug release Evangeline and Evangeline stumble back a step.

“Ladybug? Chat Noir? What?!” She exclaimed, eyes darting back and forth between them, not afraid or upset but definitely confused.

“Let’s cut to the chase,” Ladybug said bluntly. “We know you and Chloé are Magical Girls, we know you fight Witches, and we know you collect Grief Seeds.”

Evangeline froze and stared at her. Then something…shifted in her.

She straightened ever so slightly, her feet shifted just a little in preparation, her eyes turned a little more steely, a little more cold. She held the box out to the side and unceremoniously dropped it straight to the ground.

Evangeline did not need to activate her gem to transform from an ordinary teenager to a veteran fighter.

“How do you know all that?” She asked.

Ladybug faltered, not sure how to answer or even if she should answer. Thankfully Chat Noir stepped in without missing a beat.

“We’re the magical superhero protectors of Paris, why _wouldn’t_ we know?” He deadpanned.

Evangeline considered him for a moment before giving a short nod.

“Fair enough.”

Well. That was surprisingly easy.

“I assume you’ve heard about Chloé going missing?” Ladybug asked. Evangeline snorted.

“I can’t go ten feet without hearing about it. If you’re hoping I can find her because we’re both Magical Girls, I can’t help ya. If she doesn’t want to be found, you’re not going to find her.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Chat Noir asked, uncrossing his arms and stepping a little closer. Evangeline gave him a sidelong long.

“If you know anything about us, you know anything to do with Magical Girls or Witches might as well be invisible to normal people. Most of us figure out early on how to use that to our advantage. If we don’t want to be noticed, then we won’t be noticed so long as we don’t do something stupid like fight in the middle of a busy street.”

That…complicated things. It did answer why Chloé had proven to be so elusive when all of Paris was on the lookout for her, but it also meant their job was going to be a lot harder than anticipated.

“That’s our problem,” Ladybug said. “We’re not asking for your help to find her, we’re asking you to spare two Grief Seeds for us so we can charge her gem as soon as we find her. We know she’s almost out of energy, her life could depend on getting her gem cleansed as soon as possible.”

Evangeline leveled Ladybug a cold glare. “You know quite a lot about us.”

Ladybug met her eyes unflinching. Evangeline was the first to look away.

“Chloé wouldn’t take my Grief Seeds anyway,” she said bitterly. “I offered her one before she ran away, and she threw it back in my face.”

Ladybugs eyebrows shot up. “What? Why?”

Evangeline snapped her eyes back on Ladybug. “Because she’s a self-righteous hypocritical bitch who thinks she’s too good for my Grief Seeds. She was the one dumb enough to use her wish for someone else, so if she wants to die because it blew up in her face that’s not my problem. Everyone hates her anyway, no big loss there.”

Quick as lightning Chat Noirs arm shot out and shoved Evangeline on the shoulder, forcing her to step back and half turn toward him to keep her balance. Ladybug immediately stepped up to hold Chat back with a hand to his chest.

“You have no right to say anything about Chloé!” He spat. “She actually gave a damn about helping people, about protecting others, but you? I bet you’ve never cared about anyone but yourself your entire life! You could never understand what she’s going through or how many people care about her and want her back!”

“Chat, stop it, this isn’t helping!” Ladybug pleaded. 

Evangelines expression darkened as she slowly raised an arm diagonally across her chest, hand lightly fisted, the red gem of her ring glinting ominously in the sunlight.

“You have no idea what you’re talking about,” she growled. “And you can’t make me do a damn thing.”

Chat Noir stepped around Ladybugs arm. His right hand snapped forward and grabbed Evangelines wrist and pulled it to the side, hand still held up between them. Evangeline glared up at the taller boy, not at all intimidated.

“I don’t give a damn about what you want, you’re going to give us two Grief Seeds or else you’re useless to us,” Chat Noir said coldly.

Evangeline sneered up at him. “I’ve faced down scarier monsters than a frowny teenager wearing a cat suit. You think because you’re a ‘hero’ I won’t fight you? I can break half the bones in your body with one hit.”

Chat Noir leaned in just a little closer.

“I wouldn’t even need a hit,” he said quietly. “All I need is a whisper.”

A chill ran down Ladybugs spine.

Evangelines eyebrows knitted, perplexed. Her eyes darted to the black-gloved hand holding her wrist, then focused on his ring.

Her eyes shifted back to his face.

Slowly, her expression shifted into something new and raw that Ladybug had never seen from her before.

It was an expression Ladybug had seen on others many times before during particularly bad Akuma attacks, but never had she seen it directed toward her partner, and it made her stomach twist and heart ache to see it now.

 _Fear_ **.**

“I…I don’t have any on me right now,” Evangeline stammered, “but I some stashed at my place. I could go get them for you and-”

“You lead, we’ll follow.” Chat Noir cut in. “I don’t trust you not to run.”

If Evangeline looked scared before, now she looked downright terrified.

Seeing it directed at Chat Noir, normally so sweet and funny and brave but now acting so _wrong_ , sickened Ladybug to her core.

She placed a hand between his shoulder blades. “This isn’t necessary, she can just bring the seeds to us, or if you’re worried I can go with her myself, we don’t both need to follow her.”

He looked over his shoulder back at her. “She’s a selfish, violent, dangerous psychopath. You don’t have to come, but I’m not letting her out of my sight and I’m not leaving her alone with you.”

‘ _She already tried to kill you once’_ went unsaid.

Evangeline shot Ladybug a desperate, pleading look. The irony that ‘Marinettes’ attempted murderer was silently begging _her_ for help was not lost her.

There was no joy in the irony.

“Fine, we’ll both go with her,” Ladybug said. Evangeline looked ever so slightly relieved to know she wouldn’t be left alone with the black cat hero.

The Magical Girl opted to transform and lead the way to her place across the rooftops. While a few pedestrians stopped to look and point at Ladybug and Chat Noir as they passed, not a single one of them gave notice of Evangeline running ahead.

It was like she said; she didn’t want to be noticed, and so she wasn’t.

Their journey took them to the attic of an old, regal church. Evangeline merely had to wave a hand over the window and it unlocked and swung open on it’s own.

The inside was a long, triangular room filled with boxes, seasonal decorations, and other paraphernalia Ladybug didn’t have names for. The only lighting came from the window they came in through, leaving the attic dimly lit and chilly.

The area below the window had been cleared away, boxes and furniture pushed to the side to create a barrier around what was clearly Evangelines living space.

A thick sleeping bag and small travel pillow off to the side where the roof sloped down. A backpack sitting against the improvised barrier. A few changes of clothes neatly folded and arranged against the wall. Socks and underwear. A camping lamp. A toiletry kit sitting open.

That was it. That was the sum of Evangelines worldly possessions.

Even Chat Noir seemed taken aback to see it.

The heroes stayed back by the window they came in through while Evangeline marched over to her backpack. She knelt down to her knees, but paused.

“You’re wrong, Chat Noir.”

His cat ears twitched, but otherwise he didn’t respond.

“What do you mean?” Ladybug asked instead.

Evangeline stayed kneeled, facing away from them. But she spoke clearly, her words easily understood.

“I made the same mistake she did. I used my wish to help someone else. So just because I refuse to feel bad for her doesn’t mean I don’t understand.”

Chat Noir stayed silent.

Ladybug could have let it lie. She could have ignored what Evangeline was trying to say, take her Grief Seeds and leave her behind for good.

But Ladybug was a hero. Heroes had the moral obligation to help the people right in front of them.

And Evangeline was right in front of her now.

Ladybug softly padded over even as her nerves screamed at her to _stay away_ , and quietly knelt down besides the other girl. Evangeline didn’t acknowledge her, but at least she didn’t move away.

“Can you tell me what you mean by that?” She asked.

Evangeline was silent for a long as she stared into space. Her eyes stayed distant as shefinally answered.

“When Kyubey found me, my brother had just started a six month tour in Iraq. He was an EOD tech, which means his job was to find and disarm explosives. So his odds of being blown to smithereens were a little higher than average.”

Ladybug sucked in a breath.

“I didn’t make a Contract right away because I was scare of Witches,” Evangeline admitted. “But eventually I figured living day to day scared that this would be the day we found out my brother was coming home in a box, and then living with myself for the rest of my life knowing I could have saved him, would’ve been way worse.”

“So you made a Contract with Kyubey in exchange for your brothers safety,” Ladybug surmised. Evangeline nodded slightly.

“Three months later the truck my brother was riding in hit a roadside bomb and was completelytotaled. He should’ve died, but he walked away without a scratch. I felt like it proved I made the right choice, ‘cause he would have died if I didn’t make my wish.”

Ladybug frowned slightly in confusion. “Then, if you had proof that your wish saved him, why do you call it a mistake?”

Evangelines jaw briefly tightened.

“The truck was completely totaled, remember? Did you think he was the only one inside? My brother walked away, buy the other five guys didn’t. Those were guys he trained with, lived with, fought with, and now he miraculously survive a bombing that turned his friends into ground meat. It messed him up so bad he was discharged and sent home early.”

Ladybug gasped and covered her mouth with her hand in horror. Evangeline kept staring at the wall, but one fist was clenching against her uniform skirt.

“When he got back, he wasn’t the same anymore. He barely talked, he didn’t want to leave his room, he barely even ate. It was like he came back a zombie. I remember feeling mad because I wanted my brother back and instead I got this stranger. God, I was so stupid.”

In spite of everything, Ladybug felt her heart go out to the girl and her poor older brother. She glanced back at Chat to find him watching Evangeline with rapt attention, hostility drained away.

“I don’t think you were stupid,” Ladybug said. “I think you were dealing with something upsetting and confusing. You were, what, thirteen? Your brother clearly needed help, but you’re just a kid, it’s okay that you didn’t know how. That’s what adults are for.”

Behind her, Chat gave her a startled look.

Evangeline continued to stare steadfastly at the wall, as pretty and cold as a porcelain doll.

“Is that why you ran away?” Ladybug asked gently. “Because of how hard it was to be around your brother?”

Evangeline let out a huff. “Nah. I was mad, but our parents said that he just needed time to recover, that if we were patient and gave him his space he’d eventually get back to normal again. And so I stayed, and I waited, and eight weeks after he came home my brother swallowed a gun.”

Pin drop silence.

Evangeline raised a hand up as if presenting an example. “Everything pretty much fell apart after that. My mom crawled into a bottle and never came out again. My dad was constantly gone on “business trips”, which was just a token cover for having an affair with his assistant. Neither of them had any room left for me.

“The first time I ran away I stayed away for three days, because I thought if I was gone they might finally notice me. That they’d remember they had another kid who was still alive and maybe give a damn. But neither of them called me once, and when I came home neither of them asked where I’d been.

“That was when I knew I couldn’t stay anymore.”

A gamut of emotions were fighting in Ladybug at that moment - horror, anger, sadness, disbelief - and it left her speechless.

What was there to say to all that?

Evangeline twitched as if coming out of a trance, and she dug back into her bag. She unzipped an inner pocked and pulled out two Grief Seeds, mindful of the needle points.

She twisted around to hand them over, but rather than taking them Ladybug gripped Evanglines hand in both her own. The Magical Girl looked up at her in suspicious confusion.

“What happened was absolutely horrible, but I don’t think you made a mistake when you wished to protect your brother,” Ladybug said earnestly. “I don’t think it’s ever a mistake to protect a loved one, even if it turned out tragic in the end.”

Evangeline gave her a rueful smile.

“My wish wasn’t a mistake because I tried to help my brother. It was a mistake because it was a selfish desire disguised as a selfless wish. If I actually cared about what he wanted, I would have wished that he and all his friends would make it back, or that his entire unit would be protected. But I didn’t, because I didn’t actually care if anyone else died so long as my brother made it back. And in the end, all I did was cause more suffering for him and my parents.”

“Why are you telling us this?” Chat Noir asked. Evangeline looked over at him in surprise, almost as if she had forgotten he was there. Or perhaps she was surprised that his previous cold tone was gone, now sounding more like his old self.

Evangeline pondered the question for a moment.

“I’m not sure,” she admitted. “I never told anyone all this before. I wasn’t intending to tell y’all this much at all.

“I guess…I just got tired of having people assume they knew what kind of person I was when they didn’t know anything at all.”

The silence hung heavy between the three of them.

“None of this excuses the terrible things you’ve done,” Chat said evenly.

Evangeline smiled sadly.“No, it doesn’t.”

Ladybug released her grip on Evangelines hand, taking the Grief Seeds from her. She tossed one to Chat who stored it in a small compartment in his baton. Ladybug did the same with her yo-yo.

Chat pulled himself up onto the open window ledge and held a hand out to Ladybug. The crimson heroine stood, but paused a moment longer.

“For what it’s worth,” she said to Evangeline, “I’m sorry about your brother.”

“Save it,” Evangeline said sharply. “I got sick of condolences after he died.”

“Not what I meant,” Ladybug said. “I mean, yes I’m sorry that he died, but more than that, I’m sorry that he betrayed you.”

Evangeline froze, wide-eyed.

She didn’t move as Ladybug took Chats hand and climbed out the window. She didn’t move again until long after the heroes were gone.

When everything was silent and she is truly along again, Evangeline wept.

~*~*~*~*~

It was tempting to start skipping school entirely to focus on the search, but Marinette was smart enough to realize A) missing an entire day or days of school without an Akuma attack to justify it would be too conspicuous (why Hawkmoth was being quiet for so long was a question for another time), and B) they didn’t know where to look anyway to make the risk worth it.

Granted the Grief Seeds they were now carrying were basically ticking time bombs, but they had at least a few days until they were in danger of hatching into Witches, and hopefully they’ll have found Chloé long before then.

A tiny part of Marinettes mind tried to point out that if they didn’t find her in a few more days anyway, they likely weren’t going to find her alive at all.

She tried not to listen to it.

Between classes Marinette religiously checked for any updates, useless as it was. Late in the morning Mayor Bourgeois held a press conference, his second one that week, giving an update on search efforts and pleading the public to report any sightings while a woman with an over sized hat and sunglasses stood behind him -

Hold up.

“Is that…?” Marinette quietly asked herself.

Indeed a quick scroll down to the video description confirmed that the strange woman standing behind Chloés father was none other than Chloés mother.

The Queen of Fashion herself, Audrey Bourgeois.

The woman who trashed her little girls creative attempts for not being perfect, who locked her daughter in a closet for hours on end because she was inconvenient, who has been out of Chloés life for at least the four years Marinette had known her, probably longer.

The woman who, when she received a call Tuesday morning shortly after one AM that her daughter was missing, was reportedly on a plane to Paris within three hours.

Marinette had heard enough to know that Audrey had not been a good mother to Chloé at all. But that she was here now, that she rushed to come back as soon as she learned of her daughters disappearance, these were not the actions of a mother who didn’t care about her daughter.

It gave Marinette a bit of hope that whatever mistakes she made in the past, she could still be the mother that Chloé clearly wanted.

It also gave her an idea.

When Marinette got home after school she told her mother she was going to be working on a sewing project she’d been putting off and would be busy the rest of the day.

Ladybug left by skylight and was calling Chat a few minutes later.

“I think we should try talking to Chloés mother.”

Chat looked oddly unenthusiastic with the suggestion.

“Chloé hasn’t seen her mom since she was like seven. I don’t think she’s going to be as helpful as you think.”

“Even if we narrow our search to just Chloés old hunting grounds, that’s still a third of Paris, way too big for the two of us to search,” Ladybug pointed out. “You remember what Officer Raincomprix said yesterday, the police have already almost exhausted everything Sabrina and Adrian had to say and Mayor Bourgeois didn’t have much to share. Even if it’s been years, if Audrey and Chloé had a special memory or a special spot, it’d be worth at least checking out.”

Chat still looked hesitant, but he nodded. “A small chance is better than none, I guess. I’ll take all the help we can get.”

The heroes met up at the Le Grand Paris roof (and Ladybug desperately tried not to think about what happened the last time she was here), and from there it was a relatively short drop to the Bourgeois penthouse balcony. After a few minutes of knocking Jean the butler noticed the pair and quickly let them in.

“Ladybug? Chat Noir? Are you here about Chloé?” He asked with restrained hope.

“Something like that,” Ladybug answered. “I just learned that her mother is here. I was hoping we could speak with her, see if she had any ideas where Chloé might go.”

At the mention of Audrey, something in Jean shifted. He straightened back into his professionally straight pose, his expression shuttered into careful blankness, and when he spoke his tone was purposefully neutral.

“Madam Bourgeois has not been back in Paris for a very long time, but I shall inform her that you are here. Perhaps she remembers more than we realize.”

Ladybug tilted her head as the butler walked away.

Seeing Jean react that way abruptly and strongly reminded of the way Felicity had reacted the first time she even talked about Chloé, back when she was just ‘Backup girl’.

Utterly bland so as to hide immense dislike.

Ladybug tried to tamp down on the rising sense of foreboding.

It was not improved when Jean returned to say Audrey will see them ‘after she has had time to prepare herself.’

“Wait, what?”

“Figures,” Chat Noir muttered.

Jean looked truly apologetic about having to deliver the response.

“Madam Bourgeois takes presentation very seriously, and when she heard the Protectors of Paris were here she determined she was not properly dressed to receive such illustrious guests. She humbly begs your patience as she readies herself.”

“Uh, we’re…flattered, I’m sure, but we just want to talk, we really don’t care how dressed up she is,” Ladybug said.

Jean leveled her a heavy look.

“But she does,” he said simply.

They stood in silence for a long moment.

“Would you care for tea and snacks while you wait?” Jean asked pleasantly.

Ladybug had certainly tried to imagine how meeting Chloés mother would go, what the woman herself would be like in person, and had come up with half a dozen scenarios and responses for each one to feel prepared for what was surely to be a highly emotionally charged conversation.

None of them included waiting on the couch for 15 minutes with an elegant 3 tiered snack display and a cooling pot of tea while Chat burned holes in the low table with his eyes.

“This is a waste of time, she’s not going to know anything useful anyway,” Chat said at last.

Ladybugs jaw reflexively clenched, and the building resentment finally spilled over. 

“Okay, what is your deal?” She quietly snapped. Chat Noir shot her a glare.

“I just want to find Chloé as soon as possible, and instead we’re sitting here with tea and freaking cookies!”

“And you think threatening people is so much better?!” Ladybug shot back. He shrunk back slightly with a faint look of guilt, but it passed quickly as his cold stoniness returned.

“We needed her Grief Seeds. I talked to her in the only language she understands.”

Ladybug barely caught herself before she threw her hands up in exasperation.

“That’s my point! I’ve never seen you like this. I want to find Chloé too, that’s why we’re _here_ , but you’re taking this so, so personally!”

“Why shouldn’t I? Are we supposed to care?!”

“I just don’t understand why you’re acting like you’re the only one whose been affected when I’M the one who spent everyday with Chloé for almost a month trying to keep her from falling apart!”

Chat froze, eyes blown wide open as he stared at Ladybug.

“…You’re right.”

Ladybug blinked in surprise at the easy capitulation.

Something in Chat Noir seemed to almost deflate. The tension bled out of him, and he just looked so tired and sad Ladybug felt her own anger fading.

“You’re right. You’re the one whose been supporting Chloé, you’ve been a true friend to her, and I wasn’t doing anything at all. I’ve, I’ve been stupid and selfish this whole time, and I’m so sorry.”

Ladybugs hands shot out to grab one of Chats, taking him by surprise.

“You’re not stupid, and you’re one of the most unselfish people I know,” Ladybug told him emphatically. “I just want to understand why this is affecting you so much. I’ve never seen you like this before, and it’s really scaring me.”

Chat Noir met her eyes briefly before dropping. She watched the struggle play across his face, but she kept quiet and held his hand, one thumb absently stroking his.

He let out a shuddering sigh.

“My mom…”

He choked up and had to stop. He took a breath, swallowed, and tried again.

“They never found her.”

Ladybug felt her heart break.

Without thinking her other hand came up and gently held the back of Chats neck to pull him down. Their foreheads lightly bumped together.

Chat let out a shuddering sigh and closed his eyes.

They sat there together, holding hands, foreheads touching, eyes closed, Ladybugs free hand still resting on the back of Chats neck.

Finally he sighed again and pulled away, his eyes glassy.

“I’m sorry I’ve been so…you know.” He said. Ladybug shook her head.

“This has obviously hit very close to home for you. You’re allowed to be upset.”

 _‘I love you,’_ she thought. _‘And when this is over, I’ll tell you and I’ll do everything in my power so you never let you feel like this again.’_

Chat suddenly stiffened as his cat ears twitched, and he quickly pulled away. The reason why was quickly made apparent.

“I knew it was only a matter of time before you came to see me!”

In swept Audrey Bourgeois, strutting like she was walking a red carpet and wearing her oversized hat and sunglasses even indoors. Even the way she took a seat across from them was more like she was sitting on a throne rather than a couch.

Ladybug was hit by a heady sense of deja vu watching Audrey. Her stance, her motions, the superiority she oozed, even the little way she twirled her wrist as she summoned Jean to bring her tea, it was all so familiar that Ladybug was briefly left with the dizzying sensation that she was meeting an adult Chloé.

“Ugh, who brewed this tea? It’s far too strong! James, you’re fired! This is ridiculous, utterly ridiculous!”

Yep, definitely Chloés mother.

Jean the butler didn’t even bat an eye at his supposed termination, merely stepping back to whence he came.

Ladybug cleared her throat and leaned forward in her seat. “I appreciate you speaking with us today. I realize this must be a very difficult time for you, but I know Chloé really looked up to you. I was wondering if there were any areas in Paris that were a special memory to the two of you, or something you used to do together, anything at all. It could give us an idea of where she might have gone.”

While Ladybug was speaking Audrey busied herself with adding sugar and milk to her tea, test tasting it until she was satisfied. She took a long sip and set the cup down on the saucer with a sharp clink.

“No.”

It took Ladybug a moment to realize that really was Audreys entire answer.

“I’m sorry, what do you mean ‘no’?”

“She means she never actually spent any time with Chloé, so there aren’t any special memories,” Chat Noir translated darkly. Audrey shot him a sharp look behind her sunglasses.

“I wasn’t speaking to _you_ , and you have no right to speak to _me_! Leather on leather? Your outfit is ridiculous, utterly ridiculous, and I refuse to speak to anyone who dares dress that way!”

“That is my partner you’re talking to.” Ladybug said icily. She forced herself to calm down again to say “But are you sure there isn’t anything you can think of? Anything would help.”

Audrey waved a hand as if dismissing the question. “Chloé had nannies to take care of her, and then she had our butler. I have a fashion empire to run, I didn’t have time to run after a child.”

The woman leaned forward in her seat and set her tea and saucer down. “Now if you’re done with asking useless questions, I have an actual matter of import to discuss.”

“More important than finding your own daughter?” Chat Noir asked darkly. Audreys lips tightened, but she didn’t even bother to look his way.

“I know exceptionalism when I see it, Ladybug, and I truly believe you stand the best chance of succeeding where the incompetent police force has failed. When you do find her, you need to keep her hidden until at least the end of the month.”

Ladybugs jaw dropped, and she could feel Chat Noir tense besides her.

“You’ll be compensated of course,” Audrey continued, seemingly unaware of her audiences reaction. “€500 euros per day you hide her to cover expenses, and an additional €500 as payment. I will require proof that you have found her and have her hidden adequately, and this offer expires if you do not find her by at least the end of the month. You’ll understand why I won’t put this in writing, so we’re just going to have to trust each other.”

Ladybug was too shocked to speak, mouth gaping like a fish.

Chat leapt to his feat, anger radiating off him in waves. “ARE YOU INSANE?!”

Audrey reeled back slightly, but understanding passed over her expression.

“Oh, I see the problem. Fine, €500 per day to take care of Claudette, then another €500 for the two of you _each_ as payment. That’s more than fair.”

Shock gave way to anger and propelled Ladybug to her feet next.

“WHY would you ask that!” She exclaimed. “You, you took a 4am flight from New York to Paris when you got the news your own daughter was missing, don’t you want her back? Don’t you _care_??”

Audrey sighed, as if she was trying to explain a simple concept to a toddler.

“Don’t get me wrong, I do want Chlorine found as fast as possible, and I came here because I knew my husband would be a useless mess while she was missing. I was working on Style Queens anniversary edition when this mess happened, and this is valuable time being lost, but a good businesswoman knows how to turn an inconvenient wrench in the works into an opportunity.”

“Incon-?!” Ladybug sputtered.

“Most of France is paying attention to this case, and the story is even starting to gain international traction,” Audrey continued, leaning regally back into her seat. “Anyone searching the story inevitably finds out about me and my magazine. Traffic on my website has increased over 20% in just the past couple of days and shows no signs of slowing down, and the increased traffic has also lead to a significant boost in subscriptions.

“To put it simply, the longer Clarisse is missing, the more attention my magazine gets, and the wider audience I will have for the Style Queen special anniversary edition. Of course if she’s missing for too long people will grow bored and stop paying attention, but we can at least take advantage of the free publicity for as long as possible.”

Ladybug was slowly shaking her head in disbelief. She knew Audrey had been a poor mother, but she hadn’t been prepared for this.

“How could…don’t you love love your daughter at all?”

Audrey frowned. “I don’t see how that’s relevant to anything.”

Chat let out a humorless laugh. “Y’know, I honestly forgot how terrible a person you are.”

Audrey sniffed disdainfully. “As if I care about your worthless opinion. I expect you to do as your told once you’ve found Cassie.”

Something inside Ladybug _snapped_.

“ **HER! NAME! IS! CHLOÉ!** Chloé, Chloé, Chloé, CHLOÉ!! She’s smart and brave and strong and she deserves better than a cold heartless WITCH like you for a mother!”

Audrey gasped, jaw dropping in shock.

Chat Noir placed a hand on Ladybugs shoulder. “Let’s just go. She’s not worth your time.”

Ladybug forced her fists to release and her jaw to unclench. She took a deep breath and regarded Audrey cooly.

The woman sat frozen on the couch.

Chat was right. She wasn’t worth another moment of their time.

Wordlessly she spun around on her heel and marched back to the balcony. Chat shot Audrey an acid glare before following.

They got about five rooftops away before Ladybug came to an abrupt stop, standing stock-still.

Chat Noir landed behind her, concerned. “M’lady?”

Her shoulders hitched as she sniffed and choked back a cry.

Alarmed, the boy hurried around to stand in front of her. “M’lady? What’s wrong?”

“It isn’t fair,” Ladybug said, tears streaming down her face. “She messed Chloé up so much and she doesn’t even know, she doesn’t even care, and it isn’t _fair_!”

Chat reached out and pulled her into a hug that Ladybug quickly returned. He stayed with her until the tears finally stopped.

They were standing there for a long time.

~*~*~*~*~

They eventually had to return home before they were missed, but after they had supposedly gone to bed they were out again. After a quick discussion they spilt to patrol separately.

Hopefully, knowing that Chloé was a Magical Girl would be enough to break the ‘don’t notice me’ magic Evangeline had described.

Currently he was crouched on the corner of a roof overlooking a popular intersection, scanning the scattered pedestrians for blond heads. Few were out so late on a chilly night, and Chat Noir bounced between wanting to find Chloé and hoping she was someplace warm as the cold wind blew past him.

“Chat Noir! Chat Noir!”

The unfamiliar voice jolted him out of his focus.

He twisted around to see a white cat bounding towards him.

Wait. That was _not_ like any cat he had ever seen.

“I’m so glad I caught up with you!” The white and red creature said as it leapt up to the roof edge to stand next to Chat. In spite of how clearly it spoke, its lips never moved.

Chat heard enough of Ladybugs description to recognize this creature.

“Are…are you Kyubey?” He asked.

“Yes I am,” it answered. “Proper greetings will have to wait, I know where Chloé is right now!”

Chat felt his heart stop.

He leapt up to his feet. “Where??”

“She’s at the Point Alexandre III bridge.”

Chat Noir felt his heart lurch. Of course, _of course_ he would find her there. At least it was already long past sunset, the fates weren’t being THAT cruel to him.

“I’ll let Ladybug know,” Kyubey said. “You need to get to Chloé as fast as possible.”

Chat Noir clenched his jaw and gave Kyubey an acknowledging nod before taking off like a rocket.

Kyubey took a seat and watched him go, until he faded as a black spot in the night.

He would let Ladybug know, of course, as he said he would.

When the moment was right.

Chat Noir ran, leapt, and pole vaulted recklessly across the rooftops as he made a beeline for the bridge. Several times he nearly tripped over his own feet or crashed his landing in his haste, but he couldn’t afford to be careful, he couldn’t afford to slow down, not now.

With a final extended pole vault Chat dropped down at one end of the bridge. The structure was truly beautiful at night, the lamps casting a warm glow that illuminated the statues of pegasus and the famous nymphs, giving a solemn, regal air to the deserted structure.

And there, sitting off to the side at the center of the bridge, was the shadowy form of a girl.

“Chloé!!”

Chat Noir raced down the bridge to her, his heart pounding.

Her makeup had faded off and her tangled hair had fallen out of it’s ponytail. Her clothing was wrinkled with smudges of dirt in places.

But the worst part were her eyes, so dull and lifeless as they stared into what she held cupped in her hands that she rested against her drawn up knees.

It made him want to cry. It made him want shake her out of it. It made him want to pick her up and carry her to a warm bed and pile her with all her childhood stuffed animals she used to love.

Then he saw what she was holding.

And egg sized jewel with gold casing, nearly entirely black except for splotches of yellow fading in and out.

Sheer terror shot through him and he dropped to his knees in front of Chloé.

“It’s okay, you’re going to be okay,” he promised as he shook his Grief Seed out of his staff with trembling hands. “We’ll get your gem purified and then I’m taking you home, alright? You’re going to be fine now.”

But as Chat started to hold the seed up to the gem, per Ladybugs instructions, Chloé plucked it from his hand and tossed it backwards off the bridge.

For a moment Chat was frozen in pure shock.

“NO!”

He jumped up and leaned over the bridge railing, desperately looking down into the water. But the black seed had already disappeared into the dark waters of the swiftly moving waters. Retrieving it would be impossible now.

He looked back down at the seated girl, scared and angry. “Are you **insane**?? Why would you do that?!”

Chloé kept staring at her darkening gem as she answered in a quiet voice.

“I know you got the seed from Evangeline.”

A confused Chat kneeled down beside her. “What does that matter?”

“If you got it from Evangeline, then it means _she_ got it from a Familiar she let grow into a Witch,” Chloé explained dully, as if she was reciting a memorized text. “That means she let it devour as many as four or five people just so she could get a seed. I won’t take her seeds, I won’t live on the sacrifice of others.”

Chat Noir fisted his hands into his hair in frustration.

“Throwing that seed away isn’t going to bring those people back to life!” He snapped. “You _dying_ isn’t going to bring them back! It’s not going to help anything! Don’t you know how many people are looking for you? How people miss you and want you back?!”

Chloé slowly held up one finger.

“My dad.”

She lowered her hand again.

Chat Noir felt like he had been punched in a gut. Chloé truly thought that no one else would miss her, that no one else cared. That he, that _Adrian,_ didn’t care.

He put a hand on her shoulder.

“That’s not true,” he insisted thickly. “I’ve, I’ve seen how many people miss you, how hard they’re working to find you, how much they care about you. And when Ladybug gets here we’re **going** to use her seed to charge your gem, we’re **going** to take you home, and you’ll get to see it for yourself, I promise!”

Chloé didn’t answer right away, just contemplated the gem in her hands.

“Hey,” she said finally. “If you had one wish, would you be selfless, or selfish?”

~*~*~*~*~

“Ladybug! I’m so glad I found you!”

“Wha-? Kyubey? What are you doing here?”

“No time to explain, Chat Noir has found Chloé at the Point Alexandre III bridge, but he’s in terrible danger! You have to get there NOW!”

~*~*~*~*~

Chat blinked at the unexpected question. “What?”

“Selfless, or selfish?” Chloé repeated, never taking her eyes from her gem.

He immediately thought of Hawkmoth, the reign of terror he had forced on Paris, how he made people afraid to freely feel upset or angry, how the city needed him apprehended and stopped for good.

He though of his mother, her kind smiles and warm hugs, the hole she left in their lives and how desperately he wanted her back.

“I…I don’t know,” he admitted.

A corner of Chloés lips tugged in what might have been a smile, or a smirk.

“Y’know, I didn’t actually care that much about the wish at first, I was just excited to be a real live Magical Girl. And when Ladybug showed up, she was everything I wanted to be, cool and smart and strong. I still get chills remembering how she stood up on the Eiffel Tower and promised to protect all of Paris from Hawkmoth. I didn’t want to waste my wish, but I knew I wanted to be a hero.

“Thing is, even if I didn’t really need the wish, Adrian did.”

Ice water filled every vein of Chat Noirs body.

“See, if I had committed to being selfless, I would have wished for his mother back,” she continued. “And if I had committed to being selfish, I would have wished to forever be his only friend so he’d never leave me. Instead, I tried to be clever and have it both ways so we’d both be happy. What I actually did was make a wishy-washy wish that showed him what a horrible person I actually am, so now he hates me and it’s all my fault.”

Chat Noir moved around so he was in front of Chloé and held her by both shoulder. She still didn’t respond to the contact.

“That isn’t true!” He insisted desperately. “He didn’t mean it, I swear! He didn’t understand what you were going through and he’s so sorry for what he said, he could NEVER hate you, you have to believe me!”

He heard a voice in the distance, too far away to make out the words but he could recognize it was Ladybugs. Inwardly he felt a spark of relief and hope. Ladybug was coming with the second seed, they were about to save Chloés gem and rescue her for real, the ordeal was almost over!

Chloé finally raised her head to look him in the eye, eyes glassy and lips turned up in a sad, knowing smile.

“Of course he hates me,” she said simply. “I’m the villain in everyone else’s story, and villains don’t get happy endings.”

The gem turned fully black.

A dark whirlwind erupted around them, and Chat immediately grabbed Chloés limp form and held her tightly against him with one arm while gripping desperately at the railing behind her with the other. The winds were so strong they were lifting their bodies in the air, threatening to tear them away.

“CHAT NOIR!”

At the edge of the storm he could just make out a red figure and a spinning yo-yo.

“LADYBUG!”

She threw her yo-yo toward him, a lifeline in the storm. But before it could reach him his grip failed.

With a cry and still holding Chloé tight he was sent flying backwards, tumbling into the darkness.

~*~*~*~*~

The yo-yo clattered uselessly against the pavement, deafening in the silent night.

Ladybug didn’t even bother pulling it back, already running over to the spot where Chat Noir and Chloé just were moments earlier, Kyubey at her heel.

“What was that? What just happened? Where did they go??” She asked, looking around in a panic.

Kyubey leapt onto the bridge railing to put himself at a similar height to the distressed heroine.

“I’m afraid we were too late,” he lamented. “Chloé has already completed her incubation and has taken Chat Noir with her.”

Ladybug whirled around to stare at him in bewilderment. “Her WHAT? What are you talking about?!”

The wind rustled past them, gently blowing Kyubeys elongated ears.

“Girls do not stay girls forever, because they eventually grow to become women. It is the same for Magical Girls, because they eventually grow to become Witches.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Way back at the end of chapter 3 I mentioned there were three scenes that basically spawned this entire fic for me. We’ve finally reached the second scene. :)
> 
> Y’know, I have pretty clear ideas of what events I want to have occur in each chapter and where I want to end off, but I’m learning that I’m pretty bad at judging how much writing it’ll actually take. 
> 
> 30 pages people. 13,026 words across 30. Freaking. Pages.
> 
> The risks I took were calculated but man am I bad at math.


	12. Revelations

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *sips extra-large mug of Adrian tears*
> 
> Shout out to Blinix, for making an AMAZING suggestion that I just had to incorporate! Slightly modified to fit the story. 
> 
> FYI inspiration for the labyrinth came from images of the Palais Garnier Salon.
> 
> *whispers* Also I hate writing action scenes somebody please save me.

When the whirlwind finally died down, Chat Noir laid quietly for a beat with Chloé held tightly against himself. When he was sure it was over he slowly sat up. Chloé had passed out, which was concerning but at least she was in one piece and didn’t appear injured from the tumble.

Carefully he stood and lifted Chloé in a bridal carry, making sure her head remained supported against his shoulder, and took a look at his surroundings.

If he had to describe the location in one word, he’d say “opulent”.

It reminded him of the opera house, twisting ornate decorations of burnished gold absolutely everywhere, white crystal chandeliers hanging in pairs along the edges of the curved ceiling at even intervals, and a shiny, ochre-colored marble floor.

It would have been beautiful if there hadn’t been an oppressive feeling of darkness underlying it all.

The burnished gold made the walls and decorations look old and uncared for, the chandeliers only emitted the faintest glow that still cast everything in shadow, and in place of a ceiling there was an upside down river of swiftly running black water.

Looking at it made Chat Noirs skin crawl.

Along the walls were dull white pillars with elaborately carved gold bases, each one reaching up to the “ceiling” to disappear into the waters above. Between each set of pillars was an entryway leading into another, identical room that were lined with more pillers and more archways leading to presumably more rooms, the upside river flowing into each and every one. Looking down one gave the unsettling sensation of seeing two mirrors reflecting each other into infinity.

Even if he had been blindfolded, the uneasy sensation of wrongness in the pit of his stomach would have tipped him off that this was a Labyrinth.

“Yeah, I don’t think we’re finding our way out of here,” he muttered as he readjusted his grip on the unconscious Chloé.

A light fluttering sound and high pitched giggling caught his attention.

He immediately dashed and ducked behind a pillar, holding his breath in childish instinct. After a moment he carefully peaked around to see what was coming.

They were obviously the Witches Familiars, looking like theatre masks, some laughing, some crying, all with red ribbons that functioned like wings as they fluttered along, though the ends didn’t do more that twitch to keep them afloat.

Chat kept still as he watched the flock leisurely fly by into the next room. He didn’t relax until their giggling died away.

He pulled back and leaned back against the pillar. With a heavy exhale he slid down until he was seated, letting Chloé rest in his lap.

“Feel free to wake up anytime now, Chlo, because we seriously need to get out of here and-”

He glanced down at the girl in his arms, and the words died on his lips.

For the first time he took in what he was seeing. How limp, how pale, how cold she was.

He felt his heart stop.

Trembling, he wrapped his arms around Chloé and lifted her chest so he could press his ear against her heart.

_No._

_No no no nonononoonono!_

He raised his head up, pupils mere slits in horror, and looked down at Chloés face. Her unseeing, half lidded eyes, her slightly parted lips, her skin as pale as chalk.

Eleven years of playdates and sleepovers, silly jokes and sacred secrets, shared hopes and pinkie promises, laid lifeless in his arms.

A broken whimper escaped him as his eyes welled up with tears. He devolved quickly into wretched wails as he hugged Chloés body to him, rocking forward and back as he cried into her shoulder.

~*~*~*~*~

For a moment Ladybug could only stare wide-eyed at Kyubey, unable to comprehend what he had just said.

“…..What?”

Kyubey sat daintily on the railing, his tail flicking occasionally.

“You must have realized that Witches have to come from _somewhere_ ,” he said, as if Ladybug had someone missed a simple truth like ‘the sky is blue.’ “When Soul Gems become too tainted by darkness or despair, they turn in to Grief Seeds that hatch into Witches. It’s as natural as any lifecycle.”

Ladybug grabbed her pigtails as her knees knocked together, feeling as if the ground was shifting under her feet and that she was about to fall into the sky at any moment. Her breathing grew rapid and she pulled even harder on her pigtails as agrowing scream crawled up her throat.

She slapped her hands over her mouth.

Breath in through the nose.

Hold it.

Breath out through the mouth. One, two, three, four, five.

She repeated this twice more, until the rising panic had subsided to manageable terror.

Once she felt like she could focus again, she lowered her hands and glared at Kyubey.

“We’ll discuss why you never mentioned this later. Right now I have to get Evangeline so we can rescue Chat Noir.”

She started to turn to leave, mentally mapping out the way to the church.

“It’ll actually be faster if I summoned her to meet us here,” Kyubey said.

Ladybug froze.

“She’s trying to recoup the two seeds she had to give up ASAP, and fortunately she’s not too far from here,” Kyubey explained, as if unaware of the heroines reaction. “She’ll come without question if there’s a Witch involved, I estimate she’ll be here in a little under five minutes.”

Slowly, Ladybug turned to face him again.

“You can summon Evangeline,” she said blandly. “You already know where she is and what she’s doing right now.”

Kyubey tilted his head in a facsimile of confusion.

“Of course. I told you when I brought Chloé back to save you from Evangeline; I keep an eye on each girl I make a Contract with.”

Ladybugs vision went white.

The next thing she knew she was holding Kyubey in the air by both elongated ears and shaking him like a doll.

“ **You knew!** ” She screamed in his face. “All this time, you knew where Chloé was and you never said anything! WHY DIDN’T YOU SAY ANYTHING?!”

Kyubey didn’t seem the least bit perturbed by the manhandling.

“Is this really the time for a discussion?” He asked mildly. “Chat Noir cannot escape the Labyrinth on his own, and the longer he’s in there, the more danger he’s in.”

Ladybug dropped the creature to the ground. She twitched against the urge to kick him.

“Fine. But as soon as Chat Noir is safe again you have a lot of explaining to do.”

Kyubey didn’t answer. Rather he primly sat, raised his face toward the sky, and closed his eyes. For about thirty seconds he stayed that way, looking like he was merely enjoying a sunny day.

Ladybug was starting to get twitchy when he finally opened his eyes again to look at her.

“She’s on her way. I didn’t tell her about Chat Noir or you because I didn’t want her asking too many questions first. I’ll leave that to you once she gets here.”

Angry as she was, Ladybug couldn’t deny her curiosity.

“How did you call her anyway? It didn’t look like you were doing anything.”

Kyubey blinked slowly at her before he answered. Only this time Ladybug didn’t hear it with her ears.

_‘For as much as you have learned, there is still much you do not know about what we can do.’_

Ladybug grabbed both sides of her head as Kyubey’s voice rang in her very mind.

“Telepathy?!” She screeched.

Kyubey nodded.

“Every Magical Girl can do it as well, though you would not be able to respond without me acting as an intermediary. Chloé never liked using it though. She said it felt too invasive, even when I explained that it was still impossible for anyone to read her mind.”

Ladybug didn’t blame her, seeing as hearing Kyubey’s voice in her head made her skin crawl.

Then again, that might have more to do with the new light she was seeing him under rather than the ability itself.

True to his predictions Evangeline appeared a few minutes later, leaping from the rooftops of the closest building and sailing through the air to land on the bridge, already in full Magical Girl regalia. She was understandably wary of finding Ladybug waiting for her, but was quick to accept her bare bones explanation:

“Chat Noir has been pulled into a Labyrinth by a Witch. I need your help to rescue him.”

The rest would have to come later, they did not have the time for Evangeline to have an existential crisis.

Something flickered across Evangelines expression upon hearing Chat Noir was trapped in the Labyrinth. She was silent for a long, heavy moment before she responded.

“I’m doing this for you. Not for him.”

Thankfully the Witch ( _Chloé_ ) hadn’t moved from the bridge in the time they waited for the Magical Girls arrival, and Evangeline was able to open a gate without issue. She marched straight in and Ladybug had to hurry in close after her.

Kyubey silently watched them go.

Knowing what she did now, Ladybug couldn’t help but look around the Labyrinth and see the stamp of “Chloé” everywhere. There was also the uncomfortable, stomach twisting sensation that she was seeing a side of the girl she was never meant to see, like reading her private diary or snooping through her treasured belongings.

That Chloé, no, that the Witch she became would choose to hide in endless palatial halls of gold was unnervingly true to character.

Her musings were interrupted by a feather-light touch on her shoulder.

With a jerk of her chin Evangeline pointed down one hall, where a flock of (Chloés) Familiars were flying, their ear-piercing giggles echoing off the walls.

“Those guys aren’t just wandering around, they’re moving with purpose,” the Magical Girl said. “I’d bet money they found your cat boy.”

Ladybug immediately dashed after them.

After half a second of surprise, Evangeline followed.

The flock of flying theatre masks flowed through the golden halls as swift and smooth as the upside river above them, until they stopped to hover eagerly around one particular pillar.

Sitting slumped at the base of the pillar was a familiar black-clad figure with a bowed blond head.

As the Familiars descended upon him with malicious giggling glee, Ladybug went white-hot with fury.

“GET AWAY FROM HIM!”

She threw out her yo-yo and hit the Familiar closest to Chat Noir dead center. The creature shattered like porcelain and screeched as it disappeared.

The others scattered through the air in panic, but Ladybug had no mercy left in her.

She leapt forward and swung her weapon out in a sweeping arc, destroying three more Familiars in one go. She landed and pirouetted around to stand protectively in front of her partner, throwing the yo-yo out again in another destructive sweep. Furiously she smashed through swathes of Familiars, her yo-yo whistling through the air as it swung lighting fast around her, the air filled with the dying screeches of Familiars as they tried to attack or flee in vain.

Within seconds the entire flock was decimated.

Ladybug stood there, chest heaving from the exertion, adrenaline thrumming through her. A movement at the corner of her eye caught her attention.

Evangeline stood there, war hammer held loosely in one hand as she stared wide eyed and opened mouthed. Slowly her mouth closed and formed an excited grin instead.

“That. Was awesome.”

Ladybug looked away.

She turned her attention to Chat Noir, and gasped when she saw the limp form of Chloé he held against himself, one arm across the back of her shoulders while the other hand gently cradled the back of her head.

She swallowed and knelt besides him.

“Chat, are you hurt? Did any of them get to you?”

He didn’t respond, he didn’t react at all. He just stared blankly through downcast eyes, hugging Chloé to his chest.

Ladybug reached out a hesitant, trembling hand. “Chaton?”

Nothing.

The kind, playful, reliable, intelligent boy she cared so much for looked like nothing more than an empty shell, and it terrified her because she didn’t know what she was supposed to do, what she needed to say, because there was a dead girl in his arms and she _couldn’t fix this_.

She heard footsteps as Evangeline came up behind her, silently taking in the sight.

“Oh,” she said softly.

Ladybug didn’t know what conclusion she came to, but it didn’t matter for the moment.

Taking a fortifying breath, Ladybug gripped Chat Noirs shoulder.

“Chat, can you hear me? I need you to listen, we’re not safe here, we have to get out of this Labyrinth while we have the chance.”

There was rustling sound as Evangeline shifted position behind her.

“Correction: we need to find the Witch while we still have the advantage. The two of us can take it out easy.”

Horror filled Ladybug

She twisted around to face Evangeline. “NO!”

The other girl rocked back in confused shock at the emphatic reaction. Shock was quickly exchanged for anger.

“What do you mean ‘no’? You guys were so desperate to find Chloé this morning, I’d’ve thought you’d be itching to get revenge on the Witch that killed her.”

Chats cat ears twitched.

Ladybug stood up to face Evangeline, standing firm. “This isn’t about revenge. We came here to rescue Chat Noir, and now that we found him we need to leave NOW.”

Evangeline jabbed a finger at Ladybug. “YOU came here to rescue Chat Noir. I came here for a Grief Seed. And even if you don’t care about getting revenge, letting this Witch go just guarantees it’s going to hurt more people later. How do you NOT want to prevent that?!”

Chat raised his head a little more, life coming back to his eyes.

Ladybug bit her lip and shook her head.

“It’s not that simple. Chat Noir is obviously in no condition to fight right now, and we need to bring Chloés b-body back, and we can’t fight and carry her at the same time.”

Evangeline rolled her eyes.

“Fine, I’ll open the gate so you can get Cat Boy out of here with Chloé, but I’m not letting this Witch get away while-”

A rumbling cut her off, and she snapped her head around, grip tightening on her weapon.

“Too late. Looks like the Witch knows we’re here.”

The rooms moved around them, slow at first but speeding up as they moved past them with a _whoom-whoom-whoom_ sound, as if one particular part of the Labyrinth was coming _to them_.

With the passing of one final doorway, they arrived.

It was a massive round ballroom, the floors like shiny yellow marble, the curved walls covered in moving frescos with indistinct figures overlapping each other and dancing like twitching marionettes, while a magnificent crystal chandelier hung over the room.

Evangeline and Ladybug stood back to back, and even Chat Noir stumbled to his feet with Chloé still in his arms. Evangeline held the long handle of her hammer with both hands and Ladybug kept her yo-yo spinning and at ready, looking around sharply and ready for the Witch to appear.

Ladybug heard a faint tinkling sound, and she remembered the Hydra Witch.

“SCATTER!”

She and Chat Noir immediately leapt away. Evangeline, used to working alone, stayed rooted in confusion right as the ‘chandelier’ came crashing down in a waterfall of broken glass.

“NO!” Ladybug screamed in horror as the amorphous wave of glass swirled around the spot they once stood.

But in the next moment Evangeline came bursting out with a swing of her hammer, her flying lean taking twenty feet into the air to escape, her entire form outlined in a protective red glow

She landed in front of Ladybug and turned to face their opponent as Chat Noir came back around to stand besides them as well.

Thousands upon thousands of shards of glass clinked musically against each other as they shifted and formed into a massive wave that rose higher into a single point that towered over them all, the main body seizing about like an ocean in a storm.

======================================================

_BERTILLE, the lovelorn Witch with a pining nature._

_A treasured bond once kept her beating heart moving. Now broken, the shattered remains of a Witch waits in despair, hoping for her love that shall never come._

======================================================

Evangeline didn’t waste a second before she leapt back into the fight, hammer held high.

“Wait! Don’t!” Ladybug called after her.

The Witch came down on the Magical Girl like a tsunami, and Evangeline leapt up to meet it, shrouded in the red glow. She broke the wave with the swing of her hammer, sending shards of glass flying like droplets of water.

But the Witch wasn’t wholly occupied by the one opponent. Streams of glass flowed from the Witches body and speared toward Ladybug. She shifted to make sure she was between the spear and Chat Noir and deflected the attack with her spinning yo-yo, sending shards of glass in all directions as they hit her shield.

“It’s like fighting a living lake, we can’t beat her with brute force!” Ladybug called out.

Evangeline didn’t responded, only continued to swing her hammer with wild abandon as she shattered each tendril that came after her, and each tendril falling to pieces only to reform after rejoining the larger body. More tendrils came crashing towards Ladybug, forcing her to stay on the defensive.

So preoccupied was she that she did not see the way Chat Noir laid Chloé gently down on the floor. She did not see the way he slowly stood, clawed hands flexing as he pulled out his baton.She did not see the fury in his eyes.

Until he was running headlong into the Witch, baton aloft, with an anguished, furious cry.

Ladybug felt a sharp puncture in her side, the cost of her distraction, and she leapt back to get away from the attack. Her costume held up against the damage fortunately, though the spot still hurt.

Chat Noir with his baton was an angry whirlwind, all aggression and no defense, and didn’t even seem to notice the rips beginning to accumulate from the barrage of damage he was taking. Not even his magical protective suit able to protect him forever against the constant onslaught of thousands of razor sharp shards.

Ladybug stood protectively over Chloé, wanting to save her partner but unable to risk loosing the body.

“CHAT! STOP!!” She screamed, now having to twist around faster and faster to deflect the blows coming from all sides.

Something darker moved at the corner of her eye, and she turned to look.

In the body of the Witch there was an area of discoloration, roughly rectangular and clearly darker than the rest. It moved among the ocean of broken glass like driftwood, and while it was hard to gauge while it was moving so fast Ladybug estimated it was about as long as she was tall, and less tan half as wide.

With a burst of glass Chat Noir leapt high in the air to escape the Witches attack

“CATACLYSM!”

Ladybugs world slowed to a crawl.

She saw Chat Noir slowly start to fall back to the Witch, hand wrapped in dark energy, ready to erase the Witch from existence.

Her hand moved on it’s own to throw out her yo-yo.

She watched the end of it wrap around Chat Noirs foot.

She pulled with all her might to swing him backwards, far away from any part of the Witches body.

She could even make out the naked shock on his face as he was sent tumbling through the air.

He landed clumsily.

His hand slammed against the floor.

The Witch immediately drew back into herself and retreated to the ceiling as the floor dissolved away, leaving Chat Noir, Evangeline, and Ladybug with Chloé to fall.

Ladybug managed to grab Chloés arm and pull her limp body close as they fell together. She looked up to see the Witch, reformed as a chandelier, shrinking to a mere dot above them as they fell away.

And all around them, and below, there was nothing. An infinite, black void of absolute nothingness they would spending forever falling in.

She could hear terrified screaming. Maybe it was hers.

But they were only falling for a couple of seconds before a brilliant red tear opened directly below to catch them all.

They fell through the tear to land back at the bridge in the real world.

Ladybug landed hard on her back, instinct making her wanted to absorb the blow to protect Chloé. Chat Nor landed in a crouch, and slowly sat on the ground in a daze. Evangeline managed to land on her feet, but quickly fell to her knees.

The three of them stayed still and quiet for a few seconds, trying to absorb what had just happened, and what they had barely escaped.

Evangeline was the first to break the silence.

“What the hell. What the actual hell was that?!” She demanded of Chat Noir. If she had been scared of him before, now she looked absolutely terrified of him.

The boy paid no attention to her. Instead he pushed himself to his feet and rounded on Ladybug as she gingerly sat back up and gently laid Chloé down.

“What was that for?” He demanded angrily. “Why did you stop me?!”

Ladybug couldn’t bring herself to look at him, trembling hands crossing Chloés arms across her chest as she answered.

“I couldn’t…I didn’t know what would happen, I just couldn’t let you kill her like that.”

“THAT WITCH KILLED Chloé!!” Chat Noir blew up at her.

Ladybug squeezed her eyes shut for a moment, then looked up to meet his furious gaze.

“No. That Witch IS Chloé.”

There was a moment as Chat absorbed what Ladybug just said, and she watched the anger drain away until he was just staring uncomprehending at her.

“What?”

Hands were grabbing Ladybug by her shoulders and forcing her to stand, and now she had an angry, scared Evangeline in her face.

“What the hell is that supposed to mean? Chloés right there!” She said with a sharp jab of her finger to the prone body.

“That’s just her body,” Ladybug pointed out. “You know perfectly well your real self is in your Soul Gem.”

Evangeline started to touch the gem at her throat, but caught herself before she completed the motion.

Ladybug dropped her head slightly and closed her eyes as she repeated what Kyubey told her just a little while ago. She feared if she had to look at Chat Noir or Evangeline, see the revelation play across their faces, she wouldn’t get through it.

A choked gasp caused to her look up, and she saw Chat Noir stumbling back, hands fisted in his hair, pupils mere slits with horror.

“I just used cataclysm on her Labyrinth!” He said frantically. “Did I just kill her?!”

A familiar, detestable voice spoke up. “Of course not.”

Ladybug had actually forgotten that Kyubey was still there. He was sitting back up on the bridge railing again, tail swinging lazily.

“The Witch will most likely go to ground to recover for a day or two before resuming the hunt,” he explained. “You did an excellent job buying yourselves time to come up with a plan of response, Chat Noir.”

“You, you lying, manipulative piece of shit!” Evangeline yelled at him. “So I’m either going to dying fighting Witches or live long enough to become a Witchy myself? How could you do this to us!!”

“Every girl who accepts a contract with me know she’s putting her life on the line for the sake of her wish,” Kyubey counted calmly. “If she’s already prepared to die for it, what it does it matter how she meets her ultimate end?”

Evangeline looked about ready to explode, too furious to talk.

Chat Noir shook his head in confusion. “I, wait, hold on, if that’s where Witches come from, if they’re actually corrupted Magical Girls, then why would Hawkmoth Akumitizing people make the population drop?”

“Simple,” Kyubey answered. “It doesn’t.”

Chat Noir dropped his hands from his head and stared at Kyubey wide eyed.

“You’ve mistaken correlation with causation,” Kyubey explained. “I approach girls with the greatest potential to offer them the chance to become a Magical Girl in exchange for any wish. Everyone knows Hawkmoth offers to grant others the power to fulfill their greatest desire, and in exchange they’ll retrieve the black cat and ladybug miraculouses for him. You could say we are both deal makers who offer power in exchange for a service.

“While the girls of Paris are willing to accept I am not in league with him, they see Hawkmoths example as a warning and have become far less inclined to accept my offers as well, choosing to achieve their wishes by their own efforts as best they can. In effect, Hawkmoth has created a localized cultural shift disproportionate to the time he’s been active, a shift that has made it much harder to finding willing contractees. This in turn has lead to the decrease in Witch population you all have observed.”

Ladybug had her hands on her head in distress as she listened to Kyubey speak with clinical detachment. Her conversation with Chloé in the subway came roaring back at her.

“Chloé thought that it was because people getting Akumitized was starving the Witches out,” she said, barely holding back tears. “That’s why she was deliberately provoking people, so they’d be Akumitized, so they’d be _safe_! Was that doing anything at all?”

Kyubey tilted his head in Ladybugs direction.

“Of course not. Her attempts to help stall Witch formations were utterly useless.”

Chat Noir shot up in livid fury. “Then why didn’t you tell her that?!” He roared.

“I would have, if I thought there was no point to it,” Kyubey replied calmly. “As it was, her deliberately aggressive actions served to push away her peers and isolate herself from any potential support network, which would help speed up the onset of her transformation. Truthfully I’m surprised she lasted as long as she did.”

Ladybug felt like she’d been slapped. Chat Noir however looked ready to burst into flame.

“YOU WANTED THIS TO HAPPEN?!”

“Of course!” Kyubey said cheerfully. “It’s my primary purpose as an Incubator.”

There was a moment where Chat Noir just stood there in absolute fury, trembling head to toe. Then, in the blink of an eye Chat Noir covered the short distance between them and with an enraged cry lashed out with his clawed hand.

With a loud _ripping_ sound Kyubeys form went flying into the air and landed limply with a soft ‘thump’ on the ground, his body shredded by Chat Noirs claws.

There was no blood, no gore, he simply looked like a destroyed and discarded doll. It still made Ladybug gasp in horror and step back, her stomach twisting at Kyubey’s small dead body.

Chat Noir seemed just as shocked and horrified by his own actions, looking back and forth between his hand and the body, his entire body trembling as his mind caught up with what he just did.

“That was pointless,” Evangeline deadpanned.

Chat Noir looked over at Ladybug, wide-eyed and frightened. His focus then shifted to a little behind her.

In the span of a breath he ran back to Chloé, scooped her up in his arms, and ran away as fast as he could.

“Chat!”

Ladybug immediately gave chase, following him back up to the rooftops with super human leaps.

Evangeline watched them both go with a contemplative expression. She crossed her arms, tapped her foot for a minute, uncrossed her arms, looked up at the starry sky and released a long, weary sigh.

“Well I can’t NOT see how this is going to shake out now!”

With that she joined the pursuit, following where she saw the heroes disappear.

Chat Noir ran desperately across several rooftops, deaf to Ladybug calling out behind him, nearly stumbling several times and once nearly loosing his footing on a sloped roof after a careless landing. His direction was so erratic Ladybug couldn’t begin to guess where he was running to, if anywhere at all.

“Chat! Chat Noir, stop! Where are you going? Where are you taking her?”

The boy stopped dead in his tracks.

Ladybug landed behind him and approached, but stopped a full body length away when he turned around to face her, tears streaming down his face.

“I don’t know,” he admitted, voice thick with emotion. “I don’t know! This is all my fault and I have to save her and I don’t know how!”

Ladybug slowly stepped forward, half afraid her distressed partner would take off again if she approached too quickly.

“Chat, this isn’t your fault, it’s Kyubey’s fault because he deliberately waited until it was too late to say anything, you did everything you could to save her.”

Chat Noir rapidly shook his head, tightening his grip on the girl in his arms.

“You don’t understand, Chloé went through absolute hell because of ME!”

The final green dot on his ring beeped and disappeared.

With a flash of magical green light Chat Noir dissolved away, leaving behind Adrian Agreste holding the body of his childhood friend.

Ladybug felt like the entire world stop around her in that moment.

The full weight of the implications slowly settled over her. Her hands came up to cover her mouth, eyes blown wide in horror as her feet slowly stepped back.

“You’re Adrian Agreste,” she whispered. “You’re Adrian Agreste, you were Adrian all this time!”

Adrian slowly lowered to the ground, looking pleadingly up at Ladybug.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t realize that…I don’t know what to do, please tell me what to do, you always have a plan, you can fix anything, please tell me what I have to do to make this better, please!”

Ladybug grabbed both her pigtails and tugged as hard as she could, feeling as if the ground was fall away, like her entire body was on fire, like she was about to be sick, and utterly deaf to Adrians pleadings.

“You’re Adrian Agreste,” she said again even as the boy kept pleading ‘ _tell me what to do._ ’ “You asked me for help with your friend, and your friend is Chloé Bourgeois, Chloé cares about you more than anything and _I told you to break off your friendship with her!_ I did this, I made this happen, I told you to do it and now she’s been turned into a Witch and I did it to her!”

An ear-piercing whistle cut through the air. Both teens immediately quieted, attention drawn to the small black kwami hovering in the air between them.

“Hey there, names Plagg, kwami of destruction and all that,” he said to Ladybug. “This is probably the absolute worst way this coulda happened, but we’re gonna deal with it.”

He spun around slightly so he could address both teens at once.

“You guys have taken bombshell after bombshell in the last, what, twenty minutes maybe? It’s a lot to take in, and you can panic all you want about it later, but you don’t have time for it now. We’ve got, what, a little over six hours until morning? That’s six hours you’ve got to decide what you’re going to do and do it. Right now that’s either leave Chloés body someplace for someone else to find-”

“We can’t just dump her somewhere!” Adrian protested. Plagg paused a moment before continuing.

“-and let her be declared dead of mysterious circumstances, OR finding a safe place to hide her until you can come up with something else. You wanna hide her, Evangeline is probably your best bet, the girl knows how to fly under the radar.”

Plagg looked back the way they came.

“And if I’m not mistaken she’s on her way right now. LB, you might playing interference while I recharge? Can’t let her see Adrian like this.”

Ladybug nodded mechanically. Plagg dived into Adrians shirt pocket for the wrapped cheese kept there for emergencies while Ladybug turned back.

Fortunately the building before was shorter, denying Evangeline the elevation she would have needed to see Adrian exposed. She was just approaching the near edge for the next leap when Ladybug came back and landed before her.

“You catch him?” She asked bluntly. Ladybug nodded.

“Listen, I know you’ve done a lot to help already, but we need some time to figure out what we’re going to do next. Could you please hide Chloé at your place for a little while?”

Evangeline narrowed her eyes. “Define ‘little while’.” How much time are ya gonna need?”

Ladybug opened her mouth, then closed it again.

The other girl heaved a long suffering sigh. “Y’know what, forget it. I wanna see where this goes, I can take her for a few days if I have to.”

Ladybug gave her a grateful smile.

She retrieved her yo-yo and removed the Grief Seed she had stored, passing it to Evangeline who appeared mildly surprised to see it again. She seemed relived to have it back.

“Wait here a minute please, I’m going to check on Chat Noir and see if he’s okay now.” Ladybug instructed. Evangeline nodded once in acknowledgement.

Ladybug leapt back up to the higher roof, and once she saw that Chat Noir ( _Adrian Adrian it had always been Adrian how could she have not realized??_ ) was transformed again she beckoned Evangeline to follow.

As Evangeline carefully approached Chat Nor she asked, “I don’t suppose you still have the Grief Seed I gave ya.”

Chat Noir shook his head. “You were right. Chloé refused to take it, she tossed it over the bridge.”

Evangeline snorted softly. “Of course she did. That’s going to be a problem when it hatches into a Witch later, but at least I know to patrol down river, and hopefully I’ll be able to catch it before-”

She abruptly stopped. She frowned as if she were carefully weighing her words, and when she resumed after a moment she spoke with an almost defiant sense of care.

“Hopefully, I’ll be able to catch **her** again before **she** can hurt anyone.”

Ladybugs memories of the past Witches she had seen floated past, now understood through a new and terrible lens; the Spider Witch at the subway, the Hydra Witch at the park, the Red Queen Witch at-

The Red Queen Witch.

Ladybug felt as if she had been struck by lighting and punched in the stomach and spat in the face all at once.

Evangeline was saying something about how they could follow her back to her place, but it was hard to hear over the roaring in her ears, the thumping of her heart against the inside of her skull. It wasn’t until a concerned Chat Noir came into view that she snapped back a little.

“I’m sorry, you go on ahead.” She said. “I need to check on something, I just need a few minutes, I promise.”

Evangeline looked anxiously back at her, then at Chat Noir. But she seemed to relax sightly when she looked at Chloé in Chats arms, perhaps feeling that she was safe so long as Chat Noir refused to let her go.

“You promise you’ll be right behind us?” Chat Noir asked pleadingly.

Ladybug forced a smile. “I promise. I just need a few minutes is all. I’ll see you at Evangelines place.”

Her partner was clearly reluctant, but his trust in her was enough that he could pull away and follow Evangeline across the rooftops towards the church she squatted in.

Ladybug waited until they were both far out of sight.

“Tikki, spots off.”

The little Kwami floated up zipping around with burning fury.

“That liar! That cheat! Did he think we would just stand by and do nothing when he…he…Marinette?”

Tikki slowed in confusion as she noticed the way her chosen was glaring at her, fists trembling at her side, shoulders hunched slightly, jaw clench, eyes burning with accusation.

The Kwami floated forward slightly, large blue eyes brimming with concern, “Marinette, what-”

_“You knew.”_

Those two words hung heavy with cold, acidic anger. Tikki flinched back as if she’d been stabbed.

“Marinette, I-”

“Everyone always called the Witches ‘it’,” Marinette cut in. “Felicity, Evangeline, Chloé. Except in that first Labyrinth. You called the Witch ‘she’ and ‘her’. You already knew she used to be a regular girl, you ALWAYS knew the truth about Witches!”

Tikki flinched, but didn’t say anything.

Marinette let out a harsh laugh. “So what you said before, about despair being the worst enemy a human can face? You weren’t just being metaphorical, you were talking about THIS! You already knew that despair could turn Chloé into a Witch, that’s why you fed me that stupid ‘save her with hope’ line instead of telling me the truth!”

“It wasn’t just a line, it _was_ the truth,” Tikki said. “Magical Girls can last indefinitely as long as they have sufficient hope and Grief Seeds. I truly believe you being there for her gave her more time.”

“Oh, yeah, that completely makes up for you _lying_ to me all this time!” Marinette shot back with every ounce of the betrayal she felt.

“I’m sorry that I had to hide it from you, I really, truly am,” Tikki pleaded. “But even if the Accord-”

“To HELL with the Accord!” Marinette shouted back. “If you had just told me I could have…I could have…”

Tikki watched patiently as Marinette realized mid-protest that she didn’t know how to finish it.

“Marinette, Chloé made her contract months ago. Even if I had been permitted to tell you, I wouldn’t have burdened you with the knowledge that Chloé had been doomed from the moment she entered a contract with Kyubey.”

“You thought it was better for me to find out like _this_?” Marinette asked bitterly, eyes burning with tears.

Tikki looked away. “I had hoped you would never find out. I had hope Chloé would never find out, in the way that Felicity never found out.”

Marinette stared at Tikki in open shock and horror.

“It’s a terrible thing to hope for, I know,” Tikki admitted. “But at least that was a risk Chloé knowingly consented to for her wish. And I think she would have preferred that, to becoming a Witch that will go on to hurt and kill more innocents until she herself is defeated by another Magical Girl.”

Marinette slowly lowered into a crouch, covering her face with her hands and curling up into as tight a ball as she could.

Tikki floated down to hover by her head. “I realize this is a lot to deal with, but we have to talk about Adrian.”

The girl held up a hand to stop Tikki from speaking anymore. The Kwami respected the request and stayed silent, giving her chosen a quiet moment to process.

So many emotions were tangling themselves in Marinettes head she felt like amatted pile of infinite yarn. She wanted to _stop_ , she wanted to _rest_ , she wanted to cry and scream and beg someone else to come along and tell her it’s all going to be okay and _fix_ this for her.

But she couldn’t.

There wasn’t anyone else.

And right now Chat Noir, Adrian, her friend and partner, he needed her.

She dropped her hands and stood up again.

“I’m going to tell Adrian the truth,” Marientte said. “He’s my partner, we can’t be equals if I know who he is but he doesn’t know who I am.”

“Adrian didn’t reveal himself because he wanted to, he did it on accident because he was under extreme duress and forgot about his timer,” Tikki pointed out. “It’s already dangerous that you know who he is, him knowing who you are won’t make you any safer.”

Marinettes eyes narrowed.

“I told you I was telling him as a courtesy. I wasn’t asking for your permission.”

Tikki flinched back as if she’d been struck.

Guilt and sorrow rose up in Marinette, but she was still too hurt and angry to apologize for it.

“Tikki, spots on.”

The Kwami tried to protest that their was more to discuss, but Ladybug didn’t want to hear it. There would be time for that later, Chat Noir needed her support right now and she’s left him waiting long enough.

When Ladybug found Chat Noir again, he was sitting on the edge of the rooftop across the street from the church, arms wrapped around his knees and staring down at the little window to the attic.

Ladybug was silent as she landed, and slowly approached him from behind. Before she could say anything, Chat Noir spoke first.

“I’m sorry.”

She paused a few steps behind him, briefly confused by the abrupt apology before understanding set in.

“I’m not upset about you revealing your identity,” she assured him. “I don’t blame you at all for that, not with what you were dealing it. In fact, I now need to-”

“That’s not it,” he cut in.

He curled a little more tightly into himself, as if he wanted to disappear.

“I’m sorry for…everything, I guess. These last few days, I feel like I’m been loosing my mind. What I said to Evangeline, what I did to Kyubey, that’s not…that’s not me, but it is me, and I feel like I’m turning into someone I don’t recognize and he _scares_ me and I don’t want to become that, but I’m also scared for Chloé and, and I don’t know what to do!”

Without a single thought Ladybug dropped to her knees behind Chat Noir and wrapped her arms around him. He stiffened in surprised, but he gripped her arms back in a reverse hug.

“You’re confused, and hurt, and scared, and I get it because that’s how I feel too,” she admitted. “And I don’t know what we’re going to do either, not yet. But we’re going to find a way to save Chloé, we’re going to find a solution, and I’m going to be there for you every step of the way. And if you ever feel like you’re about to fall over the edge, I’ll be there to pull you back again.”

Chat Noir twisted around and pulled Ladybug into a fierce hug, burying his face into her shoulder and holding her like she was his lifeline in a storm. Ladybug held him back, running a hand up and down his back

Eventually he finally relaxed and pulled back slightly, but still keep his arms wrapped loosely around her.

“Thank you, Marinette.”

Ladybug smiled warmly at him. “Any time. You’re my partner, but more than that you’re my best friend. You’ve been there for me when I needed it, so now I’m going to be there for you.”

Chat Noir smiled, but he also seemed to been looking at her rather expectantly.

Ladybugs smil faded into confusion. “What? Why are you…?”

And then she _finally_ realized what he said.

“…..You called me ‘Marinette’.”

Chat Noir grinned, a little of his old self returning. “I was wondering how long it’d take you to notice.”

“You called me ‘Marinette’.”

He nodded. “Yes I did.”

“YOU called ME ‘ _Marinette’!_ ”

Now Chat Noir was starting to look a little worried.

“Yeah. I’m sorry if you didn’t want me to know, but honestly after learning that ‘Magical Girl’ was Chloé all this time it was kind of obvious, and I didn’t want to hide that I knew.”

“You knew it was me since yesterday?!”

Chat Noir sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck.

“I want to say ‘yes’ because it makes me sound smarter, but honestly I only put the pieces together, like, two minutes ago. In my defense, I’ve been pretty distracted.”

Ladybug dropped her head on Chat Noirs shoulder.

“Well, I was planning to tell you anyway, so at least I don’t have to stress over it,” she said, slightly muffled against the leather.

Chat Noir let out a little chuckle.

She pulled back to look him seriously in the eye.

“But I also owe you an apology too. You came to me for help on how to deal with Chloé, and I gave you _terrible_ advice. I should have just told you everything before, none of this would have happened if I hadn’t - don’t shake your head at me, Chat, you’ve been blaming yourself for something that I pushed you towards!”

“You didn’t ‘push’ me to do anything,” he protested. “And you were just respecting Chloés privacy by not telling ‘Chat Noir’ who she was. I shouldn’t have gotten mad at you like I did, it was wrong and I’m sorry for that. And yeah, I asked you for advice, and you gave me the best advice you could based on what I told you. You can’t be expected to give good advice when you only have half the picture.”

“That’s the thing; I had both halves of the picture the whole time, I just never realized it because I couldn’t see the connection,” Ladybug lamented. “That’s what makes this so frustrating. The whole point of us keeping our identities secret even from each other was to keep us safe, but it was _because_ of our secrets that everything spiraled out of control.”

“To be fair, it wasn’t like we could’ve predicted the whole ‘Chloé is a secret Magical Girl’ thing,” Chat Noir pointed out.

Ladybug started to nod, but froze. Chat Noir was staring at her, eyes beginning to widen with the same epiphany.

“I’m Chat Noir,” he said, as if realizing this for the first time. “Chloé is my friend. Chloé is friends with Chat Noir, and _Kyubey offered her a contract anyway_.”

Ladybug frowned in confusion. “Kyubey and Tikki said that he wasn’t allowed to offer contacts to our friends and family, but maybe Chloé made a contract right before…wait, that doesn’t make sense, if Chloé was already a Magical Girl then you shouldn’t have been allowed to have a Miraculous, otherwise what’s the point? That’d just be hypocritical.”

Chat Noirs eyes grew distant as he mentally turned inward into his own memories.

“One of the last things Chloé mentioned was how much Ladybug inspired her to be a hero. She specifically mentioned that time you promised we would protect Paris from Hawkmoth while standing on the Eiffel Tower.”

Ladybug eyes widened at the implications and started to stand.

“But that would mean-”

Chat Noir followed her to his feet.

“- We already had our miraculous by the time Chloé made her wish!”

Ladybug thought she knew anger, thought she had experienced fury. But what she felt before was barely a candle compared to how she felt in that moment. By Chat Noirs expression, he was right there with her.

“That bastard broke the Accord!!” Ladybug screamed in fury.

A light, childlike voice floated in from above and behind them.

“I did no such thing.”

The human pair whirled around.

Kyubey stood high above them, perched delicately across the lips of a pair of chimney flues, his cat-like body outlined by the city lights behind him while his ruby eyes shined brightly in the darkness.

“While the circumstances were highly unusual, I remained with the constraints of the Accord,” he said as he stared down at them.

“How are you here?!” Chat Noir exclaimed, looking torn between relief that he hadn’t actually killed Kyubey and the murderous desire to rip him apart again.

Kyubey leapt down from his perch to land on the ridge of the sloped roof and walked along it until he was directly in front of the pair at the bottom edge, still elevated above them.

“I have plenty of bodies to spare, though I don’t like to be wasteful,” he explained, as if it were as normal as the weather. “Fortunately I had already anticipated you would react emotionally, so I kept a couple nearby just in case.”

“Excuse me?!” Chat Noir exclaimed. “You told us that you deliberately wanted Chloé to turn into a Witch, and you act like, like it doesn’t MATTER! She trusted you, they all trusted you, and you tricked them!”

“Why do humans insist they’ve been ‘tricked’ anytime they realize they made an error based on their own misunderstandings?” Kyubey lamented. “It’s not my fault they never asked where Witches physically come from."

Chat Noir jolted as if he was about to leap up at attack Kyubey again, but was held back by Ladybugs hand on his shoulder. She in turn glared up at Kyubey.

“You can pretend all you want you didn’t trick anyone, but you’re the one who broke the Accord to contract Chloé. And we know she made her wish _after_ we got our Miraculous, how can you possibly say you didn’t break the Accord?”

“She made a contract with me after _you_ received a Miraculous,” Kyubey corrected. “At the time, Adrian didn’t have one yet.”

Ladybug and Chat Noir exchanged a disbelieving look.

“I’m aware you do not have the context to understand what I mean,” Kyubey said with infuriating patience. “At this point, it’ll be easier for me to simply show you.”

Ladybug gasped as her body suddenly felt weightless as the entire world spun around and faded into a whirlwind of bright light and colors. She instinctively reached out and grabbed Chat Noirs hand, who gripped her tightly back.

It lasted only a couple of seconds, and once it stopped spinning the world had re-arranged itself into a familiar bedroom.

Chat Noir let out a strangled gasp, and Ladybug turned her head to see something that made her heart clench painfully in her chest.

There, at her desk, sat Chloé, bent over and deeply concentrating on the flow of her pen as she wrote.

Scattered around her were crumpled up pieces of paper, a blank school registration form off to the side, and a check signed by Gabriel Agreste directly in front of her. Chloé would constantly look back and forth between the signature and her attempts to copy it, again and again, filling up a page only to crumple it up and toss it to the side with an angry huff.

Ladybug looked over at Chat Noir with a questioning look. “Did she…?”

Chat Noir kept his eyes locked on the blonde girl as she started a new sheet, as if afraid she’d disappear if he so much as blinked. Even as he answered, his gaze never wavered.

“My father didn’t want me to go to school, he just wanted to keep me at home forever. I didn’t even know Chloé forged my dads signature to get me enrolled until she showed up with the form. I’ve never really thought about how long it must have taken her to get it just right.”

Chloé dropped her pen and leaned back in her seat with a tired sigh, dropping her hand onto her lap. Only then did they notice Kyubey resting there like a contented cat.

“If you’re so desperate to help Adrian go to school, there is an easier way,” he pointed out. “You can just make a contract with me and use your wish to help him.”

Ladybug felt her heart stop.

It slowly started again when Chloé rolled her eyes.

“Yeah right. I’m not going to waste a wish on something I can do myself, I’ll save it for something important.”

“As you wish,” Kyubey replied.

They sat in silence for a moment, Chloé absently stroking Kyubey’s back and Kyubey appearing to enjoy it, body boneless and eyes closed.

“So, how specific does my wish have to be anyway?” She asked, her hand continuing its ministrations.

Kyubey didn’t move, but he did open his eyes to look up at her. “If it’s a choice between being vague and being specific, I recommend being specific. I’ll grant any wish to the fullest extent I can, but if you’re too vague I can’t promise you’ll get what you actually want.”

“Because you can’t give me what I don’t ask for,” Chloé said, and Ladybug got the sense she was repeating an old point.

“That being said, if you’re TOO specific you might end up putting unintended limitations on your wish as well,” Kyubey continued. “If you only get one wish, you should be able to get as much benefit out of it as possible.”

Chloé simply hummed and stayed leaned back in her chair, staring up at the ceiling in thought.

Suddenly the world bled together and swirled around them again. This time, it set them down outside on a rooftop in the middle of the day.

A second later Ladybug heard a high pitched scream from above. She looked up, and her jaw dropped.

She was seeing herself, falling through the air and flailing like she had on her first day with her new powers. She looked down the side of the building, expecting to see Chat Noir happily crossing the gap on his baton as he was when they first met.

No one was there.

The screaming was abruptly cut off, and Ladybug looked back up just in time to see a black and red tangle of people come crashing down towards them. Ladybug instinctively leapt back to avoid a collision, and the pair rolled right past.

Chat Noir stared at them, clearly confused. “This isn’t how we-”

He cut himself off when the Ladybug in the past pushed the figure in black off herself. Ladybug in the present stared at the stranger who raising his hands and apologizing.

“That’s…this isn’t right, that’s not Chat Noir,” she said.

Indeed, instead of blond hair and green eyes the boy had teal/black hair and blue eyes. Instead of flirting with puns, he was soft spoken and apologetic. And when past Ladybug asked his name, instead of giving a name with cheerful confidence he identified himself with an uncertain ‘Black Cat.’

“I don’t understand, who is this guy, where am I?” Chat Noir demanded, confused and upset. “This never happened, why are you showing us this?!”

In answer, the world melted and spun around them again. This time, they were dropped off in the schools locker room of all places. The door slammed open and Chloé came storming in, already dialing her cell phone. She stood between a row of lockers and paced back and forth as her phone rang.

As they watched, half the world bled away and shifted again, as if they were watching a dual screen. When the second image reformed, Ladybug and Chat Noir both gasped.

Half the vision was now occupied by Gabriel Agreste’s home office, the man himself at his desk. Sitting in a chair opposite, cowed and shame faced, was Adrian. Nathalie stood slightly behind the teenager, as still and emotive as a guardian statue.

“I…this never happened,” Chat Noir said quietly. Ladybug blindly reached out for his hand and gripped it tightly. He tightened his grip in return.

Without the slightest change of expression Gabriel took out his ringing cell phone, set it to speaker, and laid it out on the desk, clearly intending for Adrian to hear the entire conversation.

“I assume you are calling about my son not appearing in school today as you expected,” Gabriel said evenly, never taking his eyes off his son.

Chloé finally ceased her pacing to shout, “What is wrong with you?! Are you seriously so deranged you can’t let your teenage son go to school?? Do you have any idea how many parents would kill to have a kid who wanted to go to school so badly? Would it really be so awful for him to have a normal life for once?!”

“A ‘normal’ life was never an option for him,” Gabriel responded, a glacier in the face of Chloés bonfire. “That both you and my son fail to understand that basic fact is the failing of immaturity.”

Adrian in the past sunk deeper into his chair. Ladybug gripped Chat Noirs hand even tighter, indignant that his own father would humiliate him like this.

Chloé, fierce, angry, wonderful Chloé, didn’t stand for it.

“No, YOU don’t get it!” She shot back. “This is the only thing he’s ever asked for, and you can’t even give him THIS much!”

“Adrians safety is my primary concern,” Gabriel responded. “The world is a dangerous place, more so for someone as high profile as my son. If ensuring his security requires sacrificing some freedoms, then so be it.”

“Then hire more body guards!” Chloé countered angrily. “Have a driver take him to school and pick him up! Get armored transport if you have to! You’re richer than God, you can’t tell me you can’t make it work! Adrien doesn’t need to be locked in a castle, he NEEDS to be in a school with _people!!_ ”

“Do you think I’ve never considered such options?” Gabriel answered icily. “Do you think yourself brilliant for suggesting these things? Has it not occurred to you that, now that Hawkmoth has appeared and can create monsters out of people, Paris is now more dangerous than ever? For as long as Akumas are a threat, the risk that Adrian will be caught up in the damage they cause is too great. That is why he must. Stay. Here.”

Chat Noirs hand was beginning to violently tremble, matched by the boy trembling in the chair in front of his father.

“And maybe Godzilla will show up next and step on your house!” Chloé snapped, exasperated. “You can’t keep him locked up because of what _might_ happen! He’s already started making friends here, you can’t-”

Gabriel slammed his hand down on the desk with an echoing BANG that made Adrian jump in his chair and halted Chloés tirade.

“Enough,” he said. “My decision is final. Adrian will continue to be home schooled from now on, as he had before.”

Chat Noirs breathing had quickened, turning ragged. Ladybug half turned to wrap both arms around him, a gesture he was quick to return. She rested her head against his chest, unable to take her eyes off the scene in front of her. She felt Chat Noir rest his cheek against the top of her head, still trembling but less so now.

Back in the past, Chloé released an aggravated sigh. “Fine, then I’ll bring kids over instead. He can have more friends AND still be in that super-ultra safe house, so everyone wins.”

Adrian sat up slightly in his chair, silently pleading his father with desperate, hopeful eyes.

Gabriel met it with cold indifference.

“There will be no need for you to bring anyone here. In fact, there will be no need for you to come here anymore either.”

Chat Noirs head lifted in shock.

Adrian shot up in his seat, hands gripping the armrests, a protest on his lips but wilting under his fathers gold glare.

Chloé froze in disbelief.

“What?” She finally said, her voice low and trembling with foreign vulnerability. 

“It would have been impossible for my son to register on his own,” Gabriel explained cooly. “Did you think I would not realize your culpability? Did you believe that you could forge my signature, abet my sons disobedience, and get away with it? I may not have hard evidence that I can bring to your father, but you have proven yourself to be untrustworthy and a poor influence on my son. Therefore, I will no longer be permitting any further association between the two of you.”

Adrian half stood from his seat. “Father, I-!”

Nathalies firm hand on his shoulder forced him down again, and the boy silenced himself.

Chloé was slowing shaking her head back and forth in denial and disbelief.

“No. No. You can’t DO THAT, I’m the only friend he has, you can’t keep me away too, you CAN’T DO THAT TO HIM!”

“Allowing your friendship to continue to this point was my mistake,” Gabriel ‘admitted’. “I acknowledge that you care about my son, misguided as it was, so take comfort knowing that he will have everything he needs here, at home.”

Chloé gripped her phone in both hands, her expression warring between anger, fear, and desperation.

“HE’S NOT A PRISONER YOU CAN KEEP LOCKED UP! I’LL CALL DADDY, I’LL CALL THE POLICE, I’LL CALL WHOEVER I HAVE TO! I WON’T LET YOU DO THIS!”

Gabriel didn’t bother to respond this time. Instead, still looking straight at Adrian as he had been doing during the entire phone call, he reached over and hung up the call.

Chloé pulled her phone away and stared at it in disbelief. Disbelief became anger, and with a heart wrenching cry she pulled her arm back and threw her phone with all her might.

The phone flew through the space and smashed straight into Gabriels face, shattering the vision into a thousand shards.

With the second vision gone, all that was left was Chloé, alone in the locker room, her phone in pieces on the floor, and the window with a large spiderweb crack. She stood there for a few seconds longer, breathing heavily. Abruptly she straightened and marched to the door, throwing it open with enough force it left a small dent in the wall.

The vision shifted to follow her out the locker room, out into the courtyard, out of the school. She leapt down the steps two at a time and ran down the street. This time the vision stayed put and they had to watch her disappear into the distance.

The world spun and blend around them again. Ladybug was actually starting to get used to the weightless sensation that came with it.

This time they were dropped outside the Agreste mansion gate just in time to see Chloé climbing up the bars and squeezing her thin body through the spaces left in the ornate design. She fell forward and nearly landed on her face on the other side, but picked herself up quickly and ran for the door. She immediately began banging on it with her fists, yelling at the top of her lungs, “Let me in you coward!”.

“Wow,” Chat Noir breathed.

The door swung open so fast that Chloé nearly fell over, but before she could recover the Gorilla was already wrapping an arm around her to carry her away.

“LET GO OF ME YOU NEANDERTHAL!” She screamed, squirming like a fish. Gorilla merely shifted his grip, but made the grave error of letting his hand come too close to Chloés face.

Without the slightest hesitation she bit down on his hand so hard she broke the skin.

“Holy crap!” Ladybug exclaimed.

Gorilla grunted in pain, and while he didn’t drop her his grip did loosen just enough that Chloé was able to wiggle out, quickly spit out the blood, and dash for the still open door in less than a breath, paying no attention to the dumbfounded Nathalie as she passed.

Gabriel stood at the landing up the stairs, looking down at Chloé as she ran up to him. Adrian watched from the upper level, leaning over the banister and staring at Chloé with shock and awe.

Chloé came to a stop a few steps below where Gabriel stood, practically vibrating with righteous fury.

“You don’t care about keeping Adrian safe, you just want to control him and I won’t let you!” She shouted. “You think I’m joking? You think I’m bluffing? I’ll destroy you if I have to!”

“You vastly overestimate your own influence.” Gabriel responded, tone almost dry.

Any response Chloé had was interrupted by the Gorilla grabbing her again and tossing her screaming and kicking over his shoulder.

“Nathalie, call Mayor Bourgeois and have him send someone to pick up his daughter,” Gabriel ordered.

“Chloé!”

The girl finally stopped and looked up at Adrian hurrying down the stairs. The boy reached the landing, but was stopped by Gabriel holding out his arm sideways to block his path. From the way Adrian looked, it was as binding as an iron chain.

Chloé looked furious.

“I won’t let this happen!” She yelled even as Gorilla carried her away. “You hear me Adrian? I’m getting you out of here, I promise! I won’t leave you behind!”

The look on Adrians face was absolutely heartbreaking. Hopeful and sad at once, as if he desperately wanted to believe was Chloé was saying while also believing this was the last time he would see her.

Gorilla unceremoniously dumped Chloé outside and slammed the door shut before she even had time to get up.

She let out a wordless scream and kicked the door in impotent fury. She stood there at the door, fists clenched, head hanging, breathing heavily. Her breathes turned to short gasps, tears beginning to fall.

Chat Noir instinctively move forward and tried to place a comforting hand on her back. “Chloé I…”

His hand went right through her.

Chloé raised her head and took a deep, shuddering breath. She used the inside edges of her sleeve to wipe away the tears, even now being careful enough not to smudge her make up.

She turned and froze, eyes going wide.

Chat Noir and Ladybug turned to see what she saw, and gasped. It should not have been a surprise, given what they knew, but it still hit like a sledgehammer.

Perched on top of one of the gate pillars was Kyubey himself, the sun behind him casting a long shadow across the courtyard.

Ladybug whipped her head back around to Chloé, and she could see the exact moment her decision solidified, her eyes hardening with iron resolution. When she strode forward, it was with the grim determination of a soldier marching to war.

“No.”

Without even thinking Ladybug reached out and tried to grab Chloés arm as she passed. Her hand passed through her like smoke.

“No. No, don’t do this!”

Chat ran forward next and tried to grab her, to no avail. He tried to wrap his arms around her, he tried standing in front of her, he tried grabbing her by the shoulders, begging all the while.

“Don’t do this, I’m not worth it, I would’ve been okay, it’s just a few years and then I’m free anyway, you don’t need to do this, not for me, don’t do this, it’s not worth it, _I’m not worth it!_ ”

But Chloé couldn’t see him, couldn’t hear him, she just kept marching forward toward inevitability.

She came to a stop before the pillar and looked up at Kyubey high above her, her small figure completely engulfed by his shadow. Chat Noir and Ladybug flanked either side of her.

There was a long moment of simple, heavy silence.

“You promise this will work?” Chloé asked at last. “You’ll be able to save him, for real?”

“Of course.” Kyubey answered. “You have to power to change his fate for the better. All you have to do is make a contract with me, and become a Magical Girl.”

Chloé let out a sigh and lowered her head, almost seeming to relax.

“Alright. Alright. Okay then. Just give me a second.”

“When you’re ready.” Kyubey said.

“No,” Chat Noir whispered, shaking his head, tears welling up. “No, no, no no no…”

Chloé took a deep breath and let it out slowly. She clasped her hands and raised them in a prayer position as she looked back up at Kyubey.

“I wish for Adrian to be free and happy, so he can live the life he wants!”

For a moment, nothing happened.

Then Chloé was grabbing at her chest and grunting in pain, which quickly turned into screams of agony as she fell backwards. But she fell slowly, as if weightless, and as she hung in the air a bright yellow light emerged from her chest and hovered in the air above her. The light changed and solidified into a familiar bright yellow Soul Gem.

“The contract is complete. You are now a Magical Girl.” Kyubey announced.

Chloé was now flat on the ground, staring up at the gem floating above her like a brilliant star with awed fascination.

She never noticed the manor door opening again or the way a panicked Adrian came running out with Gorilla and Nathalie on his heels, likely drawn by her screams.

The vision ended the moment she raised her arms and clasped her new Soul Gem in both hands.

They were back on the rooftop they started at, night time again, Evangelines church across the street.

Chat Noir dropped to his hand and needs, head handing and tears falling freely as he openly sobbed. Ladybug was immediately at his side, wrapping her arms around his shoulders.

“She loves me!” He sobbed. “She loves me, she actually LOVES me, she loved me enough to give up everything for me, and I _ruined_ her! She loves me more than my own father does, and I destroyed her!”

Ladybug pulled him up into a hug, holding him tight and letting him cry against her

“You didn’t know, you COULDN’T have known, it’s not your fault that you didn’t know,” Ladybug insisted even as she fought back her own tears. “She did it because she loves you, she wouldn’t want you to blame yourself like this.”

Chat Noir shook his head against her shoulder, but he was too much of a wreck to say anything else just yet.

Ladybug continued to hold him for as long as he needed, her own emotions a whirlwind. Yes, she already knew Chloé used her wish to help Adrian, but it didn’t prepare her for the full truth of what she had saved Adrian from. She hadn’t known that her wish was the reason she had Chat Noir in her life right now.

And a tiny, horrible, monstrous part of her had the gall to be _grateful_ to Chloé for it.

Kyubey watched the pair impassively.

It was almost ten minutes before Chat Noir cried himself out, and at the end of it he radiated weariness, as if he were burnt out. Ladybug didn’t blame him, not after what he’d been through in just the past hour.

Kyubey spoke up again, as calm and matter-of-fact as if the emotional breakdown he just witnessed never happened.

“I am obligated to fulfill the wishes of my contractees to the fullest extent possible, and Chloé was clever enough to leave her wish open ended for long term benefits. Allowing you to go to school was a good start, but that alone would not have been enough to meet the scope of Chloés wish, and I’m not allowed to change your fathers fundamental personality to give you more.

“I did not have the power to _make_ you Chat Noir, but I did give you the opportunity to _become_ Chat Noir. In a way, I was even required to do so in order to fully honor the wish Chloe staked her life on. Have you not said for yourself that being Chat Noir is the most freedom you’ve ever had?”

Chat Noir was speechless.

Ladybug shot Kyubey a venomous look. “How does any of this prove that you didn’t violate the Accord?”

“In the original timeline, Chloé made her wish on September 4th, and in the new timeline, Adrian received the black cat ring on September 2nd,” Kyubey explained. “To put it simply, Adrian was not Chat Noir when Chloé made a contract, and Chloé was not yet a Magical Girl when Adrian was chosen for the black cat ring. Therefore, no rules were broken.”

Chat Noir dried his tears to glare hatefully at Kyubey. “You think what you did was okay because of, of some kind of Schrödinger's paradox?”

“If the Kwamis want to enter a discussion to modify the rules of the Accord to cover this type of situation that occurred for the first time in over fifty thousand years, I would welcome it. But I have not violated the rules of the Accord as they are currently written.”

“You bastard,” Chat Noir growled. “You God damned bastard.”

Kyubey stood.

“I think it’s best we table any further discussion for tonight. It’s late, you have school tomorrow, you need to regain your strength and take time to process what’s happened.”

A thought occurred to Ladybug, so simple yet utterly breathtaking.

She scrambled to her feet and desperately called out “Wait! If a Magical Girl can be turned into a Witch, it is possible to change her back?”

Chat Noir looked up at her wide eyed.

“Not by any power I have,” Kyubey admitted. “But the two of you wield the powers of the ladybug and black cat miraculouses. That means you have abilities that I can’t match.”

Chat stood up as well, his frame appearing taller and straighter than before, as if the small promise of hope was strengthening him. “So, it might be possible to save Chloé then?”

“If there is a way, you’ll have to find it on your own,” Kyubey replied.

With that he leapt down the opposite side of the roof ridge and disappeared from sight.

“Wait, you can’t just leave now!” Chat Noir protested. He and Ladybug scrambled up the roof to the top of the ridge, but in the second it took them to clear it Kyubey was already gone.

Ladybug let a defeated sigh.

“I hate to admit it, but Kyubey has a point. We need to call it a night and get some rest.”

Chat Noir looked at her in disbelieve. “Kyubey just said we can save Chloé, and you want to go to bed?!”

“He said that IF there’s a way to save her, we have to find it on our own,” Ladybug corrected him. “We have a bit of grace before… **she** …repairs the Labyrinth. We need that time to rest and come up with a plan. As she is right now, she’s too dangerous to confront while we’re tired.”

Chat Noir looked ready to argue but stopped himself. He struggled for a moment before his shoulders slumped in defeat.

“You’re right,” he admitted. “If we only get one shot at this, I don’t want to jeopardize our chances by being reckless.”

Ladybug took his hand and gave it a squeeze. “Are you going to be okay going home?”

Chat Noir hesitated a moment too long.

He plastered on what Ladybug could now recognize as his Model™ smile.

“Of course M’Lady! I’m doing better now, you don’t need to worry about me, I’ll be okay!”

Ladybug considered him for a long moment.

“If you mean it, I’ll respect it,” she said slowly, giving his hand another squeeze. “But it’s okay if you’re not okay.”

Something flickered across his face. He looked down at their linked hands, nibbling his bottom lip as the conflict played across his face. Ladybug patiently waited him out.

“I…I’m not ready to be alone just yet,” he admitted. “Plagg can be good company, but I need…”

Ladybug nodded and smiled in understanding, relieved by his trust in her.

“I have some extra blankets and pillows at home. Obviously you’ll have to leave early enough to get home before you’re missed, but you can sleep at my place for a few hours at least.”

Chat Noir closed his eyes and dropped his head forward, letting his forehead rest against hers. She closed her eyes and accepted the contact.

“Thank you,” he whispered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Somebody please let these children rest.


	13. Return

Fortunately Marinette had already taken down her pictures of Adrian shortly after realizing her feelings for Chat Noir (oh the irony), so she was saved the potential embarrassment when she let him into her room through the roof access.

Sleeping arrangements however, proved surprisingly difficult.

“You’re already helping me out by letting me stay the night, I can’t kick you out of your bed too!” Adrian whispered as he clung a pillow to his chest.

Marinette rolled her eyes and put her fists to her hips as she whispered back, “You’re _not_ kicking me out of my bed, I’m _giving_ you the bed because you’re my guest and guests shouldn’t sleep on the floor!”

“Guests don’t force their hosts to sleep on the floor either!”

Marinette defiantly plopped down in the next of blankets and pillows and crossed her arms. “Well, I’m sleeping on the floor no matter what, so you might as well just take the bed!”

And that was how both teens ended up sleeping on the floor while a perfectly good bed went unused.

Tikki and Plagg waited until the pair finally fell asleep, cocooned in blankets and a comforter, curled up on their sides and facing each other, each with a hand out and lightly touching the others in comfort and reassurance. The Kwamis exchanged a solemn look and a nod before they flew out of the room, phasing through the window.

Several blocks away Kyubey sat delicately perched on the top of an office buildings WiFi tower, eyes closed and head tilted upward into the night breeze.

He fully expected the Kwamis seek him tonight, and that they’d likely want the loophole he exploited to be closed up, which was fine. He expected them to be unhappy with what he did, but not beyond the point of reason. As irrationally attached as they could get with their chosen, they had seen far too many generations come and go to get overly invested in one peripheral human.

So he thought, until a small red dot came flying out of nowhere to slam into his side at mach one.

Tikki hovered in place at the point of impact as Plagg caught up with her, and together they watched Kyubey’s white body fly high in the sky with a whistling sound and land in the far distance as a tumbling tiny dot.

“Gee Sugar Cube, tell me how you’re _really_ feeling right now,” Plagg said dryly.

“We can always talk to the next one we find,” Tikki said, completely unapologetic.

“Make it the third, I’m calling dibs on the next one.”

(They actually punted seven more of Kyubey’s bodies before they’d finally calmed down enough talk.)

~*~*~*~*~

Adrian was already gone by the time Marinette woke up. He had even taken the top to fold the blankets he was using and set them to the side with his pillows on top. The little courtesy made Marinette smile, though she immediately winced in pain as she started to get up.

Yeah, sleeping on the floor was probably a bad idea. Maybe she should look into getting an air mattress in the future.

(The inherent assumption that Adrian would be back for future sleepovers went unexamined.)

“Marinette?”

The girl twisted around to look at Tikki, who was still resting on the miniature pillow she used as a bed.

“I’m sorry.”

Marinettes eyebrows shot up at the unexpected apology.

“I ask you to place a lot of trust in me everyday, and trust cannot exist without honesty,” Tikki continued. “It’s true that the Accord limited what I could tell you, but the Accord only binds me, not you. I could have done more to encourage you to ask Kyubey the right questions, to think critically of the answers he was giving, but I didn’t because I wanted to protect you. But my good intentions do not erase how I hurt you.”

Marinettes eyes began filling with tears. She reached over and gently scooped the Kwami up in both hands.

“I’m sorry too,” she said. “I shouldn’t have blamed you like I did. You’re one of my closest friends, and I trust you more than anyone. I knew you couldn’t tell me everything, but I got mad at you anyway. You always still tried to guide me to do the right thing. I shouldn’t have blamed you like that, and I’m sorry that I hurt you.”

Tikki gave a watery smile and floated up to press her forehead against Marinettes for a moment.

“We’ve both said we’re sorry, so lets both forgive each other.”

Marinette nodded with a matching smile, feeling lighter already.

~*~*~*~*~

Before falling asleep Adrian and Marinette had agreed to meet up on the school rooftop during lunch to discuss their next step in private. They also agreed that acting the same as they did before was more important than ever, as they couldn’t afford to draw unwanted attention at this crucial time.

She knew that, but it didn’t make seeing the empty desk at the front of the class any easier.

It didn’t make seeing Sabrina still sitting between Rose and Juleka because she couldn’t bear to be alone any easier.

Adrian was already waiting for her by the time Marinette made it up to the roof, sitting cross legged on the ground with his unopened lunchbox to the side and Plagg resting on one knee. He had his phone out and was looking at it with a soft, sad expression.

“Hey there,” Marientte greeted as she approached.

Adrian lifted his head and his smile brightened, which quickly turned bemused when he saw was Marientte was carrying.

“I don’t remember you ever bringing your lunch in a suitcase before,” he commented mildly.

“Ha ha,” Marinette responded with an eye roll as she set her canvas bag down. “You shouldn’t make fun of people bringing you food.”

Adrian visibly perked up at that, and his eyes widened as Marinette began to empty the bag.

First came a small blanket that Marinette spend out on the ground between them. Next came several food containers of various sizes that Marinette opened up as she laid them out: a strawberry salad, two breakfast croissantwiches, several savory cheese tarts, a pair of miniature spinach and feta quiches, assorted macaroons, and two bottles of water. Last came a pair of paper plates and plastic utensils.

“I told my parents we were going to have lunch together, and asked for ideas of what to bring,” she explained, slightly embarrassed. “They might have gotten a little carried away.”

Adrian gave Marinette a genuinely grateful smile. “It all looks amazing. Your parents are amazing.”

Marinette ducked her head a little to hide her blush. Trying to cover it up she asked “So what you were looking at before?”

His smile faded and Marinette immediately wanted to kick herself. But before she could apologize he held his phone out for her to see what had him enraptured.

It was a picture of himself and Chloé, clearly a selfie taken by the girl going by her outstretched arm. She was up against Adrians side, her other arm wrapped around his waist. The boy was using both hands to hold up a completed school registration form by the upper corners, proudly displaying it front and center.

Both of them were beaming at the camera with the brightest, most sincere smiles she had ever seen from either teen. They glowed with such pure radiant joy that it left Marinette almost breathless.

“This is my favorite picture of Chloé and me,” Adrian explained as he pulled his phone back. “I even set it as her profile pic so I’d see it every time she called, I just liked it that much. I know Chloé had it set as her phones background, so I know she likes it too. In a way, it’s a picture of Chloé at her very best, the side of her no one else got to see.”

As he looked at the picture again Marientte could see the sadness coming back, and her heart hurt for him.

 _‘Oh Chloé. If only you could see how much he cares for you,’_ she thought.

“What was it like to grow up with her?” She asked.

Adrian looked up slightly to ponder the question.

“Most of my life has been made up of meticulously scheduled routines,” he answered. “Anyone watching me for a week could probably figure out how I spent every minute of every day, that’s how predi…that’s how _controlled_ I was.”

Marinette sheepishly recalled the pull down chart she used to have of Adrians entire schedule.

“Chloé became my escape,” he went on, softly smiling from the memory. “Even when we were little she was fierce and emotional and she seemed totally fearless to me. Looking back, she was my hero before I even knew what heroes were.”

The smile slowly faded, but instead of sadness there was only steely resolve.

“She’s been saving me most of my life. Now it’s my turn to save her.”

Marinette felt that same resolve fall over her, as familiar as a well worn cloak, and she nodded in agreement.

The moment was broken by a new voice.

“Great, go team, ra ra, can we eat now?”

Tikki popped her head out of Marinettes purse. “Plagg! Read the room for once!”

The cat Kwami was already seated on the edge of the cheese tart container, easily holding up one pastry even though it was larger than he was.

“Relax sugar cube, the kiddos got their heart-to-heart done already, now it’s time for food!”

With that he tossed the tart up on the air and opened his mouth impossibly wide to swallow it in one gulp, followed by a loud belch.

“Plagg! That’s disgusting!” Adrian exclaimed in horror.

“No, that was delicious!” Plagg countered breezily, already reaching for another tart.

Adrian gave Marinette an apologetic look, and the whole situation suddenly struck her as so ridiculous she just had to laugh.

“I’ll be sure to pass your compliments onto my parents then,” she said with a smile.

Plagg twisted around and smugly told Adrian “See, SHE gets it!”

Adrian rolled his eyes but couldn’t suppress a smile. Even Tikki came out and settled down with the macaroons, albeit with a long-suffering sigh.

Everyone was briefly silent as the teens filled up their plates, Adrians own lunch forgotten. Marinette waited until after she had taken a couple bites of salad before she spoke again.

“So first things first. Tikki, Plagg, what Kyubey said about how he didn’t break the Accord, does it actually hold water?”

Tikkis expression darkened. “Unfortunately, yes. He’s obligated to disclose if any potential miraculous candidates are already Magical Girls or have close friends or family who are, but since Chloé didn’t technically become one until two days after Adrian was already chosen there was nothing to disclose. But with her wish already locked in, she couldn’t NOT become a Magical Girl after the fact either.”

“He knows he threaded the needle with this, so on the plus side he gave permission for us to tell the two of you everything we know about Incubators and the Magical Girl system,” Plagg added. “Which honestly isn’t much, you already know all the important bits by now, but at least we don’t have to tiptoe around it anymore.”

“When did you get to talk to him?” Adrian asked in clear surprise.

“Last night when you and Pigtails were asleep,” Plagg replied. “We needed to share a few words so Sugar Cube and I went looking for him.”

“You’re better than I am then,” Adrian said. “I’m not sure how the two of you were able to talk to him without hitting him.”

“We didn’t.” Tikki deadpanned.

Marinette let out a bark of surprised laughter. She was defiantly going to have to ask about that later.

Her laughter died when she saw how pensive Adrian appeared to be, looking down at his lap and anxiously drumming his fingers.

“Adrian? Something the matter?” She asked.

He looked up at her, expression conflicted.

“I’m not supposed to be Chat Noir,” he blurted out.

Marinette immediately opened her mouth, a protest on the tip of her tongue, only for the words to crumble into dust on her lips.

She felt in her heart that Adrian, that _Chat Noir_ , was her one and only partner, that there wasn’t anyone else she trusted as much to have her back and trust her crazy plans, that the thought of him _not_ being there made her feel physical ill, and that she would NEVER accept a stranger in his place.

But how could she say any of that when they’d already seen a timeline where that wasn’t true?

Why would he believe her, when they already had proof that Black Cat was once real?

“See, this is why I hate it when people try to talk about fate,” Plagg complained. “They make it sound like there’s only ever one ‘right’ way for anything to happen.”

The teens looked at the cat Kwami with identical confused expressions.

“He has a point,” Tikki added as she fiddled with her half-eaten cookie. “Adrian, Kyubey twisted time to give you a chance to become Plaggs chosen, but if you didn’t have the qualities needed then there would have been absolutely **nothing** Kyubey could have done to change that. He’d be forced to find another way to meet the scope of Chloés wish.”

Marinette mentally latched onto a part of Tikkis answer, but Adrian was already speaking again.

“But, the other guy, Black Cat…” he said hesitantly.

Plagg heaved an exaggerated sigh and dropped the remains of his tart to float up into Adrians line of sight.

“Alright, let me put it this way; there’s, what, two million people in Paris? Let’s pretend that there’s 1000 qualified candidates to be my chosen, and that’s me being VERY generous. Thing is, the only times the miraculous are given out is when there’s already a crisis, which means there’s no time to find all 1000 candidates and pick whoever’s ‘best’, whatever the heck that means, so it comes down to whichever one gets found first.

“You were already one of the thousand long before Kyubey ever showed up, kiddo. Black Cat was just lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time to be noticed first. All Kyubey did, literally the ONLY thing he had to do, was bump you in line ahead of him. **You are not a lesser choice because of it,** and don’t you ever dare think I’d prefer to have anyone else but you as my Chosen.”

Adrian stared wide eyed at Plagg as if overwhelmed by what he was hearing. A smile slowly grew, grateful and sincere.

“Thank you Plagg,” he said softly.

Plagg floated back down again and eyed the quiche on Adrians plate. “You could say thanks with food, you know.”

Adrian picked up the pastry and pointedly took a big bite.

Plagg fell over into the blanket and loudly bemoaned the betrayal even as Tikki chided him for being dramatic (“I’m not being dramatic! Food is IMPORTANT”)

“Still, even if that’s all true, Kyubey still manipulated events to I could be Chat Noir instead of the other guy,” Adrian went on. “How is that not breaking the Accord? Isn’t that still interfering?”

Plagg shrugged. “Technically, but it doesn’t matter ‘cuz it was a wish, and we had to accept a long time ago that some wishes are GOING to have ripple affects on us, intentional or not. If we had to insulate you kids from the effects of every wish Kyubey ever granted throughout all of human history, you’d be left living naked in a cave somewhere.”

Marinettes eyebrows shot up. “….Really?”

Tikki glared at her counterpart, “Plagg tends to exaggerate the point.” Her glare faded as she admitted, “But even at my most optimistic I doubt humanity would have made it further than the bronze age by now without all the wishes giving boosts along the way.”

“The wishes have made that big of a difference?”

“Collectively, yes. No wish is ever fulfilled in a vacuum, each one WILL have a ripple effect for good or ill. Those ripples build on each other, over and over again until they become tidal waves of change that bring us to where we are today. From Kyubey’s perspective, this arrangement between humanity and Incubators is mutually beneficial.”

Adrians face twisted in disgust. “And all it costs is deliberately tricking teenage girls all over the world into becoming Witches.”

The familiar anger at the mention of Kyubey started to boil up, but Marinette forced herself to push it down. In fact, Tikki mentioning ‘mutually beneficial’ reminded Marientte of something Kyubey said the previous night.

“Kyubey said he wanted Chloé to turn into a Witch,” she said thoughtfully. “He grants wishes so normal girls will become Magical Girls who’ll hunt Witches for Grief Seeds. Then they turn into Witches, who’ll be hunted by other Magical Girls. What’s the point of all this? What does Kyubey get out of ANY of this?”

“Ding ding ding, give the girl a prize, she’s asked the million euro question!” Plagg announced. “What do y’all know about the thermodynamics of entropy?”

The non-sequitur left Marientte going “what” whereas Adrian didn’t even miss a beat.

“The second law has a few different forms, but the bit about entropy states that in any cyclic process the entropy will either increase or remain the same. The more it increases, the less energy there is available for future cycles. It also states that heat can only ever move from warm to cold until equilibrium is reached, never the other way around, so heat transfers can only ever go in one direction.”

Marinette stared at Adrian. She already knew it was smart, but somehow it was different hearing him sound like he just swallowed a text book.

The boy noticed her attention and sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck.

“Cataclysm is basically accelerated entropy, it seemed like a good idea to look it up,” he explained with a self deprecating smile. Marinette couldn’t help but smile back.

“Great, you get a gold star,” Plagg said. “Bonus question: if you burn wood for fire, will the energy released be greater than, equal to, or less than the energy it took to grow the wood in the first place?”

“Less than.” Adrian answered immediately. “Whenever energy changes form, some of it always gets lost. That’s partly why perpetual motion machines never work.”

“Two gold stars!”

Marinette waved a strawberry laden fork in the air to get their attention. “Excuse me, but what does this have to do with anything?”

“I’m getting to that!” Plagg said. “Okay, so, with all that in mind, in theory the heat death of the universe should be inevitable. The Incubators decided they didn’t like the sound of that, so they went searching for a source of energy that wasn’t bound by the laws of thermodynamics. They needed something that could produce WAY more energy than it consumed so they could reverse entropy and keep the universe alive.

“Eventually, they discovered the power you now know as Magical Girls.”

Marinette dropped her fork into her lap.

“Kyubey’s civilization had invented a technology that could convert the emotions of sentient lifeforms into raw energy. However, as you might have guessed by now, his species doesn’t feel emotions at all. So since they couldn’t use the technology on themselves, they had to find another species to act as proxy. Eventually they found humans and somehow figured that the most efficient source of all were girls in their early to mid teens.

“That moment when a Soul Gem turns into a Grief seed? It releases a _tremendous_ amount of energy that Kyubey harvests. Like, mind-boggling amounts of energy, enough that they’re actually keeping entropy at bay on a universal level just with what they’re harvesting from Earth alone.”

Marientte lifted her hands and started rubbing her temples, feeling almost dizzy from what she was learning.

“Let me get this straight,” she said slowly. “Kyubey has been manipulating and tricking teenage girls into an endless cycle of suffering and death for tens of thousands of years, _because he thinks he’s saving the universe?!_ ”

“Believe it or not, yes,” Tikki said darkly. “I hate the Incubators for what they do and how they do it, even this reversing-entropy goal is just a self-preservation tactic that happens to benefit everyone else living in the universe. But even I have to admit there’s no malice at the heart of their actions. They simply don’t have the emotional _capacity_ for true malice.”

In a way, that was almost worst. At least if Kyubey was acting out of hate it would mean he at least _cared_.

Adrian raised a hand like he was in class. “I get why Kyubey thinks the deal is fair for humanity as a whole, but he negotiated the Accord with _you guys_. Was that JUST to keep Kyubey away from people like us, or was there more to it?”

Plagg and Tikki exchanged a look that seemed to encompass an entire conversation.

“That’s…a little bit complicated,” Tikki said. “Back then, the Accord was little more than a courtesy agreement. Kyubey already had bodies seeded across the globe, we had no real power to stop him or force him off planet. We could make things difficult for him, but that was about it. He agreed to it because it got us out of his hair and cost him almost nothing.

“And then we discovered that any time the Incubators harvest the released energy of a transformed Witch, a tiny fraction would always be lost in spill off. That spill off became the source of magic on Earth.

“Earth does have it’s own naturally occurring magic, just like a desert has a naturally occurring ecosystem.But the consistent spill off has turned Earth from a magical desert to a rainforest. New kwamis were born, encompassing new aspects. Plagg and I started to take that power into ourselves, until we rivaled the powers of the Incubators. Together we gained the same power they have: to re-write reality itself as guided by a single will, a single desire.”

Marinettes eyes slowly widened.

“A wish,” she breathed. “The power of a wish.”

Tikki nodded solemnly. “It’s extremely likely that’s why Hawkmoth is so desperate to get his hands on our miraculous, so he can have that wish for himself.”

“Then, that’s perfect!” Adrian exclaimed excitedly. “That wish can save Chloé, make her normal again!”

“And in exchange someone else will have to die.” Plagg said.

All excitement was instantly wiped off Adrians face. “What?”

“Wishes ALWAYS come at a cost, they ALWAYS require balance,” Plagg explained. “For Kyubey, every wish is balanced by a curse, a Magical Girl with a Witch. For us, it’s equivalent exchange. Yes we could use the wish to reverse what happened to Chloé, but someone else would have to take her place. Is that something you could live with?”

For a long moment Adrian was completely still.

“….Chloé wouldn’t accept that,” he said at last. “She didn’t want her life to come at the expense of others, even when her Soul Gem was running out of power.”

Something twisted in Marinettes stomach at Adrians answer.

She did not miss that Adrian focused on what Chloé wanted, not on how he felt. She couldn’t quite bury the fearful, needle sharp suspicion that if he had answered for himself, his response would have been very different.

“Gaining that power wasn’t our goal when we made the Accord, but it is an advantage we are fully prepared to leverage if need be,” Tikki said. “If it comes down to it, we can not only force the Incubators off of Earth, we can make it so they never came here in the first place. They would loose everything they ever collected and be back at square one.”

“Flip side being that humanity would loose all the gains they got from wishes along the way, so you’d be back in the stone age,” Plagg added, relaxing on his back on the blanket. “We got one bullet in the gun, we ain’t gonna use it unless we’re sure we have to.”

Adrian rubbed his temples as if warding off a headache. Marinette sympathized.

“This is all really important, but we’re getting off topic,” Adrian said. “Right now we should be focusing on what we can do for Chloé.”

Marinette gave a sharp nod. “Right. Okay, so, we know that when a Soul Gem gets too corrupted it turns into a Grief Seed. So I should be able to purify it back into a Soul Gem, kind of like what I do with Akumas, right?”

Her heart sank when Tikki shook her head.

“It’d be worth a try, but it’s not the same thing,” Tikki warned. “When Hawkmoth corrupts the butterflies to create Akumas, he’s only changing their _purpose,_ he’s not changing what they fundamentally _are_. Thinking you can purify a Grief Seed back into a Soul Gem is like thinking you can ‘purify’ a normal butterfly back into a caterpillar.”

“Okay, but if more energy gets released from the transformation than it took to form the Soul Gem in the first place, can that initial energy be restored to turn a Grief Seed back into a Soul Gem?” Adrian asked.

Marinette immediately straightened to attention, tentative hope on her face.

“I don’t know,” Tikki said honestly. “I don’t know if her transformation is as irreversible as wood burning into ash or cyclical like water turning to ice and back again. I can already tell you the Miraculous Cure won’t work because she wasn't affected by anything miraculous related. ”

That…was not promising. They really were going into this completely blind.

“I guess Kyubey wasn’t lying when he said we were going to have to figure this out on our own,” Marientte muttered.

Tikki looked at her sympathetically. “He’s not bound to reveal all his knowledge, but he is forbidden from speaking falsehoods. It’s one of the rules of the Accord.”

“There’s also the problem of where we’d get that energy anyway,” Plagg pointed out. “It’s like like we’d be able to plug it in like a lamp and charge it up.”

“Well, one things for sure,” Adrian said. “We have to get her Grief Seed first. We can’t do anything without it.”

“Don’t forget that once you have it, you’ll only have a few days to do anything before the Shattered Witch hatches again, maybe a week at best.” Plagg warned.

Adrian stared at Plagg. “The ‘Shattered’ Witch?”

“She’s basically a living ocean of broken glass, what else are we gonna call her?”

“He’s got a point,” Marinette said thoughtfully, a crooked finger on her chin. “About her being like an ocean I mean. Trying to fight all of her at once is a battle of attrition we can’t win. The Hydra Witch was the same way, she just had an endless supply of tentacles to throw out, Chloé had to find her heart and destroy it to defeat her. I think this Witch is the same way.”

“Most Witches don’t have a centralized weakness like that,” Tikki pointed out. “The Red Queen and Spider Witches didn’t have one, Felicity and Chloé had to destroy their bodies. What makes you so sure the Shattered Witch is different?”

“Because I saw it while we were fighting her before,” Marinette explained. “It was only for a couple of seconds, but I’m certain I saw a section that was darker than the rest. Pretty big too, about at big as me I think, and even while it was moving around it stayed the same rectangular shape. I’m certain that’s her heart, and I’d bet we can defeat the Witch and can get her seed if we can destroy it.”

“It’s as good a plan as any,” Adrian said. “But if that is her heart, the Witch is going to protect it with all she has.”

“I have some ideas, but we should wait until we’re with Evangeline before talking battle plans. I need a better understanding of what she can actually do first.”

“Good point. I think we should also find the Shattered Witch tonight, before she’s had a chanceto fully recover and go on the hunt. I don’t want Chloé to ever have to worry she hurt anyone while she was like this.”

Marinette nodded in agreement. They desperately needed the rest and time to talk and discuss, but she was well aware that their window was rapidly closing.

Her cell phone lit up with a musical alarm, signaling they had 15 minutes left before the end of lunch.

“Okay, one last question before we wrap this up,” Marientte said. “And it’s about the Miraculous.”

“Really?” Tikki said in clear surprise. Marinette nodded.

“Who decides whose qualified for a miraculous the first place?”

Adrian blinked at her, but Tikki and Plagg tellingly froze in place.

“I mean, the way you talk about the miraculous being given out before, it sounds like the two of you aren’t the ones actually doing the choosing,” Marinette went on. “So if not you, then who?”

The Kwamis exchanged another one of their ‘whole conversation by eye-contact’ looks, and Tikki sighed.

“That would be the Guardian. He protects the Miraculouses and keeps them hidden when they’re not in use, and in times of crisis when they’re needed he’s the one who searches for qualified holders.”

Adrian and Marinette stared at her for a moment, speechless.

“And you never mentioned this before, why??” Marinette asked in disbelief.

Tikki took longer to answer this time, clearly choosing her words carefully.

“No one knows exactly how and when Hawkmoth obtained the butterfly miraculous, but the Guardian blames himself for allowing it to be lost to begin with. It’s made him especially cautious about avoiding detection. You would have learned about him eventually no matter what, but so far the two of you have been doing well enough he hasn’t needed to step in.”

Marinette wasn’t sure how she felt about all that. On one hand she felt annoyed that this mysterious Guardian was content to hide in the shadows and let kids fight for him. On the other, she could also understand why preventing Hawkmoth from finding him would be so important. He was dangerous enough as it was, who knows how much worse it could get if he managed to steal whatever secrets the Guardian was still hiding?

“Can we talk to him?” Adrian asked. “Would he be able to help with Chloé?”

Tikki had her head down as she was taking another bite of her cookie, and so only Plagg was at a low enough angle to see her moment of wide-eyed panic at Adrians questions.

He took over so seamlessly neither teen had a chance to notice Tikkis hesitation.

“I doubt he’d be of any help,” he said. “He knows about Magical Girls and the Incubators because he has to know who he _can’t_ choose, but honestly I doubt he knows half as much as you two do by now. Not really important for his job, y’know? Plus he’s bound to the Accord too, so his hands are pretty tied too.”

“Wait, what?” Marinette exclaimed. “I thought the Accord only bound Kyubey and you guys, that’s what I kept hearing!”

“The Guardian is the only exception to that rule, since he’s basically the intermediary between kwamis and humanity.” Plagg answered with a dismissive wave.

“We are totally coming back to this later, but if he can’t help it’ll have to wait until after Chloés safe again,” Adrian said, to which Marientte nodded in agreement.

Adrian helped her pack up the mostly empty containers and fold up the blanket. But when Marinette headed toward the roof access, she noticed he wasn’t following her.

“Adrian?”

“Sorry, I just need a couple more minutes up here. I’ll see you in class, okay?”

Marinette watched him for a moment, then gave him a nod. If he needed a moment alone to process and decompress, she’d respect it.

Once she was back inside, Adrian stayed standing still for a long, quiet moment, Plagg resting on his shoulder.

There was no sound of moment, no crunching of gravel, no passing shadow. One moment he was alone, the next he wasn’t.

“I’m surprised you’re wiling to talk to me now. You made it quite clear you didn’t want me anywhere near you before Marinette and Tikki arrived.”

Adrian tilted his head toward Kyubey sitting on the edge of the roof.

“Did Chloé get a good look at Black Cat before her wish?” He asked.

Kyubey ducked his head in a nod.

“Yes. He was the one who originally saved her when Stoneheart threw her from the Eiffel tower, and he visited her at home afterwards to make sure she was okay.”

It was like being stabbed in the chest, hearing about how a complete stranger showed more concern for Chloés well being in a day than he, her childhood friend, had shown in months. Anger, jealously, and shame rolled together as he dug his nails into his palms.

He slowly turned to face Kyubey fully, Plagg keeping quiet but watching Adrian carefully.

“So she knows that her wish changed who the black cat hero is. She knew all long that I’m Chat Noir, didn’t she.”

“Adrian…” Plagg said warningly. Kyubey was already answering.

“She never asked me to confirm, and I wouldn’t have told her even if she did. But as you’ve pointed out, she had the evidence to make a reasonable conclusion.”

Adrian felt as if all the air had been sucked out of his body.

He wasn’t sure what he expected, what he hoped to hear when he asked. Perhaps he had hoped for Kyubey to deny it, to tell him Chloé never saw Black Cat, that she’d have no way of knowing that Chat Noir took his place.

That she hadn’t spent months protecting his secret on his behalf, waiting and hoping for him to open up and share it with her on his own.

For him to show he still trusted her.

And he failed her. Even in her final moments when she still feigned ignorance and gave him one last chance to prove he trusted and valued her, to stop hiding behind the mask and just be honest, he _failed_ her.

No wonder she thought ‘Adrian’ didn’t care.

Adrian spun around and marched stiffly away.

Kyubey silently watched him go.

~*~*~*~*~

Chloés body laid out on the floor, arms crossed respectfully over her chest, unbound hair speak below like a halo around her head, face cleaned up and eyes closed.

Evangeline had to admit, she made for a pretty corpse.

Evangeline in civilian clothes knelt by the body and held her Soul Gem out, casing a magical glow over her. Kyubey sat on the improvised barrier that defined her living space, looking down at the girl as she worked.

“I’m a little surprised you're willing to use your own magic to keep Chloés body fresh. You’re not the type to help others to your detriment.” He commented.

“Yeah, well, Chat Noir would probably cataclysm me to dust if I let her rot,” Evangeline muttered, not bothering to turn around.

“Before, you would have simply run away out of simple self-preservation,” Kyubey pointed out. “I commend you for staying to help instead this time.”

The glow faded and Evangeline clenched her fist around it to transform it back into a ring. She stood and addressed Kyubey directly.

“That doesn’t seem like the kind of thing you care about. You don’t care about heroes or altruism, what’s there to commend?”

“Pragmatism. Whether or not Ladybug and Chat Noir are successful is going to affect you as well. After all, you and Chloé are both Magical Girls. You share the same fate.”

Evangeline stiffened.

Without another word she spun and hoisted herself out the window and left.

~*~*~*~*~

The sun had just set when Kyubey approached Marinette and Adrian in their respective homes to tell them that Evangeline had located the Witch, and where she was waiting for them.

Evangeline is wearing normal street clothes and standing in the middle of an old cobbled side road next to a manhole cover when Ladybug and Chat Noir drop in. Kyubey rested on Evangelines shoulder, silently watching them.

“You’re certain this is Chloé, and not some other Witch?” Chat Noir asked. Evangeline nodded, subtly shifting to keep him in easy line of sight.

“Positive. I’ve tracked her from the bridge to here, it’s the same energy. I guess she wanted a quiet spot that was hard to get to while she recovered.”

Ladybug looked around them in confusion. “This _isn’t_ hard to get to, though? It’s just a regular street.”

In answer, Evangeline hooked the toe of her silver slipper into the edge of the manhole cover and flipped it over with unnatural ease.

“That’s because we’re not quite there yet. We gotta go further down.”

Ladybugs stomach lurched. Chat Noir didn’t look any better.

“…Please say it’s just the sewers.” Ladybug begged.

Evangeline shook her head and actually looked slightly apologetic. “She’s at least a couple hundred meters into the catacombs, and it’s in a section that hasn’t been mapped out yet. This was the closest entrance I could find. Don’t worry, I have ways to mark where we go so we won’t get lost.”

“So do I,” Chat Noir added. “It’ll be like having two safety lines.”

“And if all else fails, I’ll be able to guide everyone back up,” Kyubey said. “I know where each of my bodies are as instinctually as you know know where your hands are in the dark.”

Having three backups did make Ladybug feel a bit better about venturing into an unknown, unexplored, unlit section of underground tunnels too deep for anyone to ever hear them calling for help if the worst should happen and no way to orient themselves if they got lost and couldn’t find their trail again.

Okay, not a whole lot better, but at least a little bit better.

Evangeline held her arms out to catch Kyubey as he slid down her front. She held him protectively against her chest as she took a step forward and hopped down into the dark hole. Ladybug waited a few seconds to give Evangeline time to move out of the way to drop down next, followed by Chat Noir who stayed on the ladder long enough to pull the cover back over.

For a moment they were left in suffocating, pitch black darkness.

A soft red light appeared in the shape of a blooming rose, growing brighter and brighter as it illuminated Evangeline resting her hand against the wall just below where the rose was growing, until it was just bright enough to cast them all in a warm glow.

“Okay, yes, that’s definitely way cooler than what I’m doing.” Chat Noir admitted.

Evangeline turned to watch curiously as he dropped a tracker from his baton and slapped it against the wall opposite of the magic glowing rose.

“Perhaps I should stay with Ladybug then,” Kyubey said thoughtfully. “That way everyone has their own independent way of finding the exit in case anyone gets separated.”

“I am completely okay with NOT doing that,” Ladybug said quickly.

Evangeline snorted and Chat Noir snickered. Kyubey wisely didn’t press the suggestion.

The tunnel was wide enough for them to walk fairly comfortably, but not enough to allow for more than single file. Naturally Evangeline took the lead, guided by her Soul Gem and with Kyubey back on her shoulder. Ladybug followed behind, while Chat Noir took up the rear at Evangelines insistence. At regular intervals Evangeline would stop to grow another glowing rose and Chat Noir would place another tracker, always on the opposite wall.

After about a minute of walking, Ladybug broke the silence.

“We’ll need to go over how the three of us are going to approach this. Evangeline, last time it looked like you were able to cover your entire body in a shield to protect yourself. That’s your special skill, isn’t it? The one you got for your wish?”

Evangeline glanced back over her shoulder with a mildly surprised expression.

“Yeah. All Magical Girls can create barriers, but I can do a lot more with them. I’ve never met another girl who could cover their body like I can.”

Kyubey twisted his head around to address Ladybug and Chat Noir directly.

“It’s possible for other girls to do the same, but it would require a level of skill and control very few can reach. Evangeline used her wish for someone else’s protection, so she’s granted the skill right off the bat.”

“I still have to think about it to bring it up, it’s not reflex or anything,” Evangeline went on, facing forward again. “Lucky me Witches are disadvantaged when it comes to surprise attacks. If I’m in a Labyrinth, I already know I should be expecting danger.”

Ladybug recalled the Hydra Witches hit and run tactic and the Shattered Witches initial camouflage, and silent disagreed.

The rest of the underground journey was taken up by rough battle planning amongst the trio, as well as Ladybug describing the Witches heart to Evangeline. Kyubey largely remained silent other than confirming Ladybugs assumption that what she saw was the heart at all was most likely correct.

They came to a stop in a circular room that had five tunnels branching out, including the one they entered in from.

Evangeline knelt down to allow Kyubey to hop off her shoulder down to the floor, then stepped into the center to brush her hand in a slow wide circle against the ceiling a little over a foot above their heads. Glowing roses bloomed where Evangeline trailed her hand, more appearing in the center as she completed the circle, until she had created a shallow chandelier of glowing red roses that easily lit up the room.

With a scrape of slipper against stone Evangeline spun around and was enveloped in white and red lights as she transformed into her Magical Girl uniform. She held her hand out, fingers splayed, and the gate to the Labyrinth appeared before them with blinding brightness.

“I hope you’re both ready for this,” Evangeline warned. “If she gets away from us, there’s no guarantee we’ll be able to catch up with her in time before she hurts someone else.”

Ladybug exchanged a look with Chat Noir, her grim determination mirrored in his expression.

“We’re ready,” she said. Evangeline never bothered to look back, but she did nod. She stepped into the portal, the heroes right behind her.

~*~*~*~*~

The overall layout was the same, burnished gold and marble and chandeliers and endless identical rooms. However now there were cracks crisscrossing the floor, cracks crawling up the pillars, the occasional chandelier missing which left the rooms in deeper darkness. Some of the pillars where even cracked in half, rubble strewn across their paths.

Chat Noir felt both sickened ( _how badly did this hurt her, how much pain did he put her in?_ ) and relieved ( _she hadn’t finished repairs yet, she hasn’t been able to go on the hunt yet_ ) to see it.

Evangeline continued to lead the way, eyes straight ahead and pace cautious but confident, aware of the danger but knowing exactly where to go. Chat Noir and Ladybug flanked either side of her, eyes flicking about and on the watch for any attacking Familiars.

So tense they were from watching for oncoming danger and knowing the fight they were walking into that Chat Noir couldn’t help but jump when Evangeline carelessly broke the silence.

“How do you plan to save Chloé, anyway? Like, after you get the Grief Seed, what comes next?”

Chat Noir blinked in confusion and exchanged a look with Ladybug. His partner looked equally thrown off by the sudden question.

“What do you care?” He asked. “That’s our problem, not yours.”

Evangeline looked over her shoulder to narrow her eyes at him. “You’re seriously going to tell me it’s not my problem while I’m hiding her body in my home and using my magic to keep her from decomposing?”

His eyes widened, then he averted his gaze shamefully. “Sorry. You’re right, you’re doing a lot to help us.”

Evangelines glare hardened as she said “You’re right, I am.”

She let that sink in for a moment before looking over her other shoulder to Ladybug. “So if Step 1 is ‘get the Grief Seed back’, which is pretty obvious, do you have ANY idea what Step 2 is going to be?”

“We’re still working on that.” Ladybug admitted. Evangeline looked forward again as Ladybug continued. “Ultimately we need to find a way to turn the seed back into a gem, but that’s going to require some trial and error since it’s never been done before.”

Evangeline was silent for a long moment, and with only the back of her head visible Chat Noir couldn’t guess what she thought about Ladybugs answer. When she finally respond, it was with a flat monotone that betrayed nothing.

“…I see.”

They came to a stop at a final archway, the entryway blocked by a heavy, red velvet curtain.

Evangeline clapped her hands together and summoned a red orb between her hands. She spread her arms out wide and the orb expanded until it enveloped the three of them in a clear dome with red shimmers dancing across the surface.

[The curtains parted for them as the team breached the center of the Labyrinth once again.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSXtTDbvS40)

The Witch was upon them almost immediately.

A deluge of broken glass crashed on them from above like a waterfall. Evangeline winced as if in pain, but her arms remained spread out and steady as she maintained the barrier under the assault.

Waves of glass crashed around them like ocean waves in a raging storm, each attack making Evangeline cringe with effort to keep up the shield. Ladybug and Chat Noir faced outward and in opposite directions, frantically scanning the shifting waves for the heart.

Chat Noir spotted it first.

“DROP!”

He was already leaping forward, laser focused on his target lest he loose sight of it. Evangeline barely brought the barrier down in time before he could crash against it.

Chat Noir spins his baton in front of him as a shield, spraying glass to the sides as he rushed after the heart drifting away. Behind him he could hear Ladybug and Evangeline following, sounds of exertion as they kept the Witches attacks at bay and allowing him to focus on keeping the heart in sight as he chased after it.

With a yell he leapt high in to the air and extended his baton down. It pierced through the Witches body and pinned the heart down to the floor, ceasing its movement. Chat Noirs momentum carried him forward into the Witch, and she was already beginning to reach out tendrils to catch him.

A hammer came flying in and struck the Witch like a meteorite. With a piercing screech the Witch retreated, leaving a cleared space for Chat Noir to land safely. He was spinning back around almost as soon as he touched the floor.

Evangeline cleared a circle with a mighty swing of her hammer, even managing to briefly expose the bottom edge of the heart (gilded and gold). It tried to escape now that Chats weight was gone, but Ladybug lassoed it with her yo-yo before it could fully retreat back into the Witches body. She pulled back with all her might, like a fisherman reeling in a mighty catch, but even with her super human strength she shouldn’t pull it free.

Evangeline summoned a hammer easily as large as she was tall and swung it down.

It cracked the floor and blasted away the glass with sheer concussive force, exposing the heart. Chat was already running at it, clawed hand raised and ready to shred it.

He froze.

The guided golden edge seen before turned out to be the bottom edge of a picture frame easily two inches thick all around, at least five feet long and half as wide, elaborately carved across every inch that still managed to draw attention to the picture itself.

An achingly familiar picture taken three and a half months ago, when she granted him HIS greatest wish, one he had been looking at almost obsessively ever since Chloé disappeared.

The selfie of himself and Chloé holding up the school registration form, smiling and happy.

The Witches heart.

 _Chloés_ heart.

“Chat! Hurry!”

Ladybugs panicked voice shocked him back into reality.

He gritted his teeth, squeezed his eyes tight, and with an anguished cry he brought his claws down for the fatal blow.

He could still feel how the picture of their last truly happy memory together shred to pieces under his hand, and if felt like he was tearing apart his own heart as well.

The Witch _screamed_.

It was a high-pitched cry of pain an agony that he felt piercing him down to his bones, and he couldn’t help but slap his hands over his ears and crouch down to block out the Witches final cries. He barely registered Ladybug dropping to his side and wrapping her arms around him.

The ocean of glass evaporated around them as twinkling white lights while the Labyrinth shimmered around them and faded away.

They were back in the underground room, still lit by the glowing roses Evangeline put up.

Chat stayed still for a moment, simply breathing and taking in the quiet, Ladybug staying next to him.

He took a final deep, steadying breath and slowly uncurled back into a standing position, Ladybug rising alongside him with an expression of concern. He smiled and nodded to silently reassure her that he was alright again. She didn’t look convinced, but respectfully dropped her hand from his shoulder.

As one they turned their attention to the final member of their team.

The Magical Girl stood at the opposite side of the room, lit up by the red glow of her magical lights and framed by the dark tunnel that opened up directly behind her, Kyubey sitting at her feet. She held on hand flat close to her lower chest, the Grief Seed standing perfectly balanced on the tip of its needle in the center of her palm. The black and grey seed stood in start contrast to the brilliant white of her dress, making it relatively easy to make out the hexagon shape that crowned it.

Ladybug smiled warmly and held a hand out. “Thank you for your help, Evangeline. This wouldn’t have been possible without you.”

Evangeline did respond, did not smile back, did not make any motion at all.

A thorn covered tendril of fear began to curl in the pit of Chat Noirs stomach.

Ladybugs smile faded and she took half a step forward while keeping her hand up.

“Evangeline,” she said, more firmly than before, “please give me the Grief Seed.”

The other girl did not move, her expression did not change. In the frills and ribbons of her uniform she never resembled a cold porcelain doll than in that very moment.

It suddenly occurred to Chat Noir that Evangeline had placed herself opposite of himself and Ladybug, right in front of a completely different tunnel than the one they came in from. If she wanted to escape, all she’d have to do is throw up a barrier to divide the room and they’d be completely helpless to chase her. With Kyubey with her, she’d have no issue navigating the catacombs to find a new exit, and he and Ladybug would be unable to follow unless they wanted to risk being lost forever.

His hands curled into claws and the vertical slits of his iris widened in preparation of an attack if Evangeline so much as _twitched_ in a way he didn’t like.

Before he could explode from sheer tension Evangeline finally spoke.

“You guys have no idea what you’re going to do, and you don’t even know for sure this is possible,” she said. “So how long will you spend chasing a solution that might not even exist?”

Chat Noirs vision went red.

He reflexively jerked forward, “You don’t-!”, only to be held back by a feather light touch on his chest.

Ladybug met his fury with a calm, even gaze, a cool balm against his hot anger.

He forced himself to pull back, dropping the aggression but holding the tension in his shoulders and legs, a coiled spring ready to release at the slighted provocation.

“I understand that you’re helping us so much by protecting Chloés body, and you have every right to ask how much longer we’re going to need your help” Ladybug answered calmly. “I’m sorry I don’t have a timeline I can give you right now, but we won’t know it’s impossible until we try everything we can to help her first. Right now, at this moment, I don’t know how long that’s going to take. But we’ll absolutely keep you in the loop.”

Evangeline gave an ugly scoff at the answer.

“‘Help’? You guys aren’t doing this to help Chloé, you’re doing this just to make **yourselves** feel better. This is just you being selfish.”

If Chat Noir saw red before, now he saw **_fire_**.

“ARE YOU KIDDING ME!” He roared. “You literally tried to kill her before!”

“I know that!” Evangeline snapped. “And it’s so messed up that I’m the only one in this room who’s actually trying to think of what’s best for Chloé!”

“You’re not-” Ladybug tried to interject, but Chat Noir just yelled over her.

“What the hell are you talking about? We’re trying to save Chloés LIFE!”

“No, you’re condemning her to suffer and die over and over again because you can’t let go!”

_What?_

Evangeline slowly shook her head in disgust.

“It never occurred to either one of you for even a second what you were actually doing, did it? You turn Chloé back into a Magical Girl, she’s just gonna have to go right back hunting Witches for more Grief Seeds to keep her gem purified, and if she can’t, she’s just going to turn back into a Witch and we’re going to have to go through this _all over again_.

“And this time, she’s going to know that staying alive means crawling over the corpses of failed Magical Girls."

Chat Noir felt like all the air had left his body, leaving him dizzy and unsteady on his own feet. He felt his head shake in denial, and even Ladybug was speechless beside him.

Silence filled the room, as thick and choking as tar.

When Kyubey spoke up, so mellow and detached, it was like a cannonball crashing through a glass house. 

“You have no right to judge them.”

Evangeline flinched in surprise and looked down at Kyubey, still sitting near her feet. Ladybug and Chat Noir were equally startled, the three teens having almost forgotten the Incubator was even there. Kyubey however only paid attention to Evangeline.

“When Ladybug and Chat Noir accepted their mantles, they accepted the responsibility that came with it; to protect the innocent and stand against evil to the full extent of their abilities. If there are people right in front of them who need their help, then they have the moral obligation _to_ help. And Chloé is in front of them right now.”

Chat Noir heard Ladybug take in a sharp breath besides him.

Kyubey let his words sink in for a moment, then lowered his head and closed his eyes.

“You understand better than anyone else here what Chloé faces, but that alone does not give you the right to speak on her behalf. Only Chloé herself has that right, and we cannot know what she wants unless she’s brought back at least once.”

Evangelines eyes widened, then slowly softened into sadness. She looked down at the seed on her palm.

Without warning she flicked her wrist and tossed the seed through the air.

Ladybug reached her hands out to catch it, but it was Chat Noir who snatched it from the air. He immediately pulled it close and cradled it protectively against his chest with both hands.

“If you don’t have a solution four days from now, come find me,” Evangeline said. “I should be able to tell how close she is to hatching, and we can figure some things out from there.”

“That’s a smart idea,” Ladybug said with a nod. “And thank you for everything.”

Evangeline averted her eyes.

Wordlessly she passed the pair to return to the tunnel that they entered in from. She left so calmly, almost casually, Chat Noir could almost think that her passing on Ladybugs so the heroine was still a barrier between him and her was just coincidence.

Almost.

It wasn’t until Evangelines foot steps faded away that Chat Noir unfurled his hands from his chest and revealed Chloés Grief Seed, which magically righted itself immediately to stand on its needlepoint in the middle of his palm.

Ladybug cupped her hands around his, and they looked down together at the tiny, dark, delicate object held between them. A single question hung heavy in the air between them.

_Now what?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That ending was REALLY hard to write, and I'm still not 100% satisfied with it - I'm worried Evangeline came across as a little OOC there - but this was about as good as I could manage, and I didn't want to be stuck here forever. I hope y'all still enjoyed it!


End file.
